Genus? Species? PlantFiles

I have a question. This might not be the right place to ask, but how do you look something up in the PlantFiles or anywhere else when you don't know its genus, species or family? A lot of times I only knew one part of the name, or the common name and I don't know the rest. How do I find that out? Is there a database out there that tells this information?

Jesse

Within the tutorial here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/608659/ go to this post to learn more about the generalized search: http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=2331187

Thanks Terry. I knew someone would know how to help me.

Jesse

Just type in the part you know - there's a space to type in the common name. And you can try the generalized search, type in what you have there and your plant might come up

yes, please don't ever get rid of the generalized search function! it's invaluable, especially when I get a trade packet of seeds with partial information and am trying to figure out what I have so I know what to do with it.

I just used the "generalized search" function and it took me right where I needed to go. Thanks so much for pointing that out to me. I didn't realize we had that. Wow, I learn something new everyday.

Jesse

Generalized Search? Wow that would be useful...yep there it is. Would it be possible to move a link to that search page up to the "Welcome to PlantFiles" page? While on the subject, would it be possible to tweak the layout of that page as well? If you look at that page there is a "Search for a plant by name" section that has a green button that does not really look like a button, there is a "Browse the most popular cultivars in PlantFiles" that has a standard gray "submit" button and there is a "Look for a plant by key characteristics..." that has a link. Then just to confuse people about which option to select there is a "Search plants" button in the upper right of the page takes you to the same place as the "Click here to search for plants" button.

I guess I like consistency and simplicity (is that green button used anyplace else on the site?). I would suggest the following layout (where the items marked with ">" are just standard links).

Search for plants
> Search by common name, botanical name, or cultivar
> Search by key characteristics
> Search using the generalized search

Browse the most popular cultivars in PlantFiles
[same as it is now]

- Brent