SeedImages provides information to facilitate the identification of seeds in trade, including crops, their look-alikes, and frequently encountered weeds. Seed identification is a skill needed to facilitate seed trade and industry, seed regulatory enforcement, export certification, grain inspection, weed science, agriculture and horticulture production, forensic work, anthropology, and land reclamation. Identification of seeds separated from the mother plant without planting and growing them out is challenging. Experts in morphological seed identification outside of a university, government, or commercial seed lab are rare. Seed identification experts use seed herbaria, a standardized collection of seed specimens, to visually compare morphological traits of seeds. Seed herbaria offer the benefit of speed, important when providing seed labeling information, weed quarantine, and management decisions.
In 2000, Colorado State University (CSU) agronomist and seed scientists in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences developed a virtual seed herbarium called Seedimages.com containing over 2,200 images of seeds magnified 100× combined with written descriptions to support seed analysts and students working in seed laboratories, seed industry, and agriculture across the world. Twenty-five years later, the data contained within the program along with the platform housing this information needed critical infrastructure and taxonomic updates.
In 2025, the CSU Colorado Seed Program migrated the tool's content to idtools.org with the assistance of USDA-APHIS-PPQ-Science and Technology-Pest Identification Technology Lab's Identification Technology Program (ITP). Nomenclature was updated, see Scope section below for details, and additional images were added from ITP's imageID resource to assist users in identification. Improving SeedImages is ongoing, if you have suggestions or images, please email itp@usda.gov.
SeedImages includes all data and photos from the former Seedimages.com, with updated taxonomy, additional photos, and free public access. The website contains over 1,400 crop, weed, and noxious-weed seedWeed seed:
A seed from a plant generally considered undesirable. The total percentage (by weight) of seed lot that is composed of seed of plants considered to be weeds. One of the four components of purity test.
species, including all seeds required for analyst certification exams and all U.S. state‑listed noxious weed seedWeed seed:
A seed from a plant generally considered undesirable. The total percentage (by weight) of seed lot that is composed of seed of plants considered to be weeds. One of the four components of purity test.
species, including:
As it did in the 1990s, CSU continues to invest in and update this valuable resource as it serves an important role by:
Nomenclature in the tool follows the sites below (in order of access).