Are vintage botanical prints free to use?

Plates published more than a century ago are public domain, and the scans from museums and Wikimedia Commons are mostly CC0 or public domain. Check the verdict on each image.

Can I remove the background from a botanical plate?

Yes, for public-domain and CC0 images. Many plates have plain paper backgrounds that are easy to remove for packaging and patterns.

Art

Free botanical illustrations and plant drawings

Free public-domain botanical illustrations: hand-coloured plates of flowers, fruit and plants from old herbals and museums, ready for print and design.

Images: 36 images
Sources: from 6 sources
1080 px or larger: 21 at 1080 px or larger
Cleared for commercial use: 27 cleared for commercial use
Editorial use only: 1 editorial-only
Direct downloads: 36 with direct download
Updated: November 3, 2026

Search live for “botanical illustration”Use it from code or an agent

Picked automatically from a live search of 33 sites and refreshed daily. Thumbnails load straight from the source, never through this site. Each image belongs to its creator: check its licence on the source page before you publish.

Plants, drawn for science

Before photography, botanists relied on artists: Redouté’s roses and lilies, the Curtis’s Botanical Magazine plates, Japanese and Chinese flower paintings, and countless herbals with hand-coloured engravings. They are accurate, decorative and almost all in the public domain.

These pages collect botanical drawings and prints from the museums’ open-access collections and from Wikimedia Commons, where libraries such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library have uploaded whole volumes.

Using them

Botanical plates work for packaging, wedding stationery, wallpaper and textile patterns, wellness and food brands. Download the largest file for print and keep a note of the book or museum it came from: a credit such as Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Les Roses, 1817 is appreciated even when it isn’t required.

Where these come from

Licences

Public domain (museum open access, CC0): 17
No known restrictions on publication: 7
CC BY-SA 4.0: 6
CC0 1.0: 2
NASA media (public domain in the US): 1
Rights advisory (Library of Congress): 1
CC BY-SA 3.0: 1
Rights not stated: 1

CC0 and public domain: commercial use, no credit needed. CC BY and NASA media need a credit line; editorial images are not for ads. Image licences explained

Guides

From code or an agent

The same search over the REST API:

curl "https://image.shep.bot/v1/search?q=botanical+illustration&style=drawing"

Or give your AI agent the MCP server https://image.shep.bot/mcp and ask for “botanical illustration”. Setup

Questions

Are vintage botanical prints free to use?: Plates published more than a century ago are public domain, and the scans from museums and Wikimedia Commons are mostly CC0 or public domain. Check the verdict on each image.
Can I remove the background from a botanical plate?: Yes, for public-domain and CC0 images. Many plates have plain paper backgrounds that are easy to remove for packaging and patterns.

All collections →

Free flower photos and plant pictures
Free photos of flowers and plants, from tulips and roses to cacti and ferns, from Wikimedia Commons and Openverse, with licence verdicts and credit lines.
35 images from 3 sources · 24 at 1080 px or larger
Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), free
Free public-domain Japanese woodblock prints: Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro and more, from museum open-access collections, with sizes and CC0 licences shown.
36 images from 4 sources · 18 at 1080 px or larger
Public-domain Impressionist paintings
Free Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from museum open access (Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne), released as CC0 by the Met and other museums.
36 images from 4 sources · 25 at 1080 px or larger

36 images

Botanical Study

The Botanical Magazine or Flower Garden Displayed: White Cape - Coast Lily

Botanical Garden, Moscow

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir activates tubes filled with microbial and botanical samples

Botanic Garden. Greenhouse of Botanical Garden

Botanical Specimen

[Botanical Specimen]

The Botanical Magazine or Flower Garden Displayed: Umbel-Flowering Bulb-Bearing Orange-Lily

Стаклењак, Ботаничка башта Јевремовац (greenhouse Jevremovac Botanical Garden, Belgrade, Serbia)

Botanical Studies (recto); Botanical Studies (verso)

Botanical Gardens, Executive Bldg.

(Botanical: Maurándia semperflorens)

Wuhan Botanical Garden

Botanical Studies

Botanical Gardens. Sydney

Madame Cabassol going for a romantic stroll in the botanical gardens together with the youngest friend of her husband's. Sudden encounter with the latter not far from a stag, plate 4 from Les Amis

Polyanthus or Cluster Narcissus (Botanical: Narcissus tazetta)

Park Garden Botanical Garden Greenery Lal Bagh (48186393327)

Botanical Garden

Reproduction of a botanical drawing

West facade from Botanical Gardens

Cape Verde Santiago National Botanical Garden

The Botanical Magazine or Flower Garden Displayed: Stately Crinum

Roses in a Vase

Botanical illustration: Vanilla aromatica

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Plate

Albuquerque Botanical gardens maples and pines 2022

Botanical Garden: Avenue of Imperial Palms.

Madhavaram Botanical garden

Conservatory, Botanical Gardens

VU Botanical Garden Kairenai Japanese park 20190621

[Botanical Gardens, Calcutta]

Botanical Gardens, Washington, D.C.

Plants, drawn for science

Using them

Questions

Related collections

Free flower photos and plant pictures

Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), free

Public-domain Impressionist paintings