Help with Searching

Choose whether you are looking for plants or fungi. The plant and fungus data are treated separately on this website.

Search words can be entered in lowercase or uppercase. Search terms will match the beginnings of words, and is useful for shorthand or uncertain spelling. Fungus Family: hygro will find Hygrophoraceae, but Fungus Genus: hygro will find Hygrocybe, Hygrophorus, and Hygrophoropsis. This is also helpful with Latin endings; use Epithet: tomentos to match tomentosa, tomentosum, and tomentosus.

Using simple Name Search

Use the Name Search form, such as on this page or on the home page, to look up the name or family of a plant or fungus.

If you enter a genus name, you do not need a family name.

Some species may or may not have hyphenated epithets, for example: Aster novae-angliae and Carex laevivaginata. In this case one may have to search twice: with and without a hyphen. But it is simpler to just search on the first part of the epithet (i.e., search novae for novae-angliae; or laevi for laevivaginata).

The Advanced Search can be used if you are looking for a particular subspecies, variety or form.Searching by Common Name is less reliable because not all common names are included and some are used for multiple species. Multiple word common names must match each word you enter. It is simpler to use elm to find american elm, rock elm, etc.

Using Advanced Search

Use the Advanced Search to find specimens by particular collectors, dates, or locations. Many records, especially older ones, do not have complete collection data. For example, old records may only have the year indicated, or very little locality information, such as only the state.

If searching by county, you do not need a state, except for Lake County, Illinois and Lake County, Indiana. Note that all county names are one word (DuPage, LaPorte) except for St. Joseph.

When searching collector names, the suffixes (Sr., Jr., III, etc.) are best left off.

Collection Day needs to be two digits; use 04 instead of 4.

The results page shows the names for those plants or fungi that have specimens that match your search values. Selecting the Specimens link on the search results page for a name will list the specimens that match your search. It does not show all specimens for that name.

Name Search

Group: Plants Fungi

Family:

Genus:

Species Epithet:

Common Name: