Using the database
Cissampelos ovalifolia © João Medeiros, Flickr Creative Commons.
Help searching and filtering the database.
You can search the Paraguayan plant specimen database in three ways:
- Taxonomic: returns a list of all specimens or species matching search criteria
- Geographic: returns lists of specimens from individual Paraguayan provinces
- Reserve: returns lists of specimens from reserve stations
The three options are accessible via the Search mode drop-down menu.
Taxonomic search
You may enter or select values for any of the available fields, and the system will return all records matching those values.
Where the Province field shows two provinces separated by a forward slash, this indicates uncertainty due to inadequate locality data in older records.
Using the Show option you may choose to view a list of species or of specimens which match your other search criteria. Please note: If you choose to view species, any values entered into the Province, Collector(s) or Collector number fields will be ignored - these data are searchable for specimens only.
Some queries may return numerous records, so you may wish to use the Limit to option, which will split records into smaller sequential batches.
Click on the magnifying glass to view full specimen data.
Geographic search
Click on a province name to view specimens collected in its vicinity.
Click on the magnifying glass to view full specimen data.
Reserve search
Click on one of the named stations (indicated by a yellow arrow) to view specimens collected in its vicinity.
Click on the magnifying glass to view full specimen data.
Filtering records
Once you have reached a list if species or specimens, you may click on a family, genus or province name to filter records.
For example, a list for the family Acanthaceae will include (among others) records for the genera Dicliptera, Justicia and Ruelia, with these names appearing as links. Click one of these links to return a list of species or specimens which match the clicked value. So, if you click Dicliptera, the list will refresh to show only Dicliptera species or specimens that also match your original search criteria.
As long as there are links available, you may continue to filter records. So, using the same example, having filtered for Dicliptera specimens only, you may then click on a Department name (eg Central) to list only Dicliptera specimens that match your original search criteria AND were found in Central.
Please note: occasionally, clicking a filter link will return exactly the same records as are already visible. For example, this might happen if you searched for a particular Family and all the records returned happened to be from the province Central.