How to Find (Almost) Anything in OrchidWiz, Part 1

If you follow a few simple rules, you can find almost any orchid in OrchidWiz.  For the following example, we are going to assume you clicked "Search" from the OrchidWiz start screen (see main photo for this article, shown above).  Here are some tips for when using the orchid database search screen:

• Enter as little information as possible.  The more you enter, the more the possibility you made an error.
• Enter only those things of which you are certain.  For example, with spelling.  Are you sure you know how to spell the plant's name?  ENTER ONLY THAT PORTION OF THE NAME YOU ARE SURE HOW TO SPELL.

Example 1.  Let's say you are searching for Paph. sukhakulii, one orchid with a name hard to spell.  What do you know for sure?  Well, you know that (1) It's a Paph; and (2) the name starts with "SUK".  So, just enter the following:

1. In "Abbr.", enter "Paph"
2. Select "Name/Epithet... starting"
3. Under "Orchid Name", enter "Suk" (the search in not case-sensitive so you can enter "suk" as well)
4. Click "Search"

If you do this, you will get (about) the 7th orchid on the list, depending on which version of OrchidWiz:

What if you are only sure it starts with "SU" but you don't know if it starts with "SUK" or "SUCH"?  Well, you could select all paph species starting with "su":

​In this case, we added another piece of information, the fact that it is a species, to make up for the fact that we are only searching for two letters: "su".  As you can see, it worked, Paph. sukhakulii is only the third one down our list.

• IMPORTANT TIP: if you are going to be searching for another orchid, be sure to click the button "Clear" after each search.  This clears your search criteria (except for "name starting with" which we recommend you change back to "name containing"):

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