To select multiple criteria for a category use Shift for a continuous range or Control (Ctrl key) for individual items on Windows computers. For Mac, hold down the command button to select multiple options.
Synonyms linking to the three volume Michigan Flora are included in the Scientific Name searches (but not the Genus searches), so entering the genus “Panicum” in the Scientific Name search field will also return species in the genus “Dichanthelium”
A “%” can be used as a wildcard, so “Mu%gia” entered in the Genus field will return all the species in “Muhlenbergia”; “Cat%tail” entered in the Common Name field will return all species of “cat-tails”, which is useful when you’re unsure if the name is hyphenated or two words
Some searches, such as Scientific Name or Collector, can be conducted on partial entries, so entering “bia cor” in the Scientific Name search field will return “Euphorbia corollata”; “Haz” entered in the Collector field will return collections of “A.S. Hazzard” and “Brian T. Hazlett”
For the collection search, to select decades in the year field, use %, so 186%, will return all the collections from the decade of the 1860’s
You can search by day if you place dates in the format: 05/27/1950 or month using a wildcard i.e., 05/%/1950
Checking the box for exact matching will force exact matches on the common name, scientific name, family, and genus fields. This will prevent a search for 'Carex arcta', for example, from also returning results for 'Carex arctata'.