MOP-DB uses a custom search engine for finding Plants (also Bugs and Bug Comments). Some very complex searches can be made once one understands how to use it. The best way to get to grips with it is to experiment with it, searching does not change any data.
When not logged in you can only search plants that have been made public. When logged in the default search is your own plants but you can select 'Public Plants' or 'All Permitted' which is a combination of your plants, public plants, and other members plants that they have shared with members. For an explanation of plant privacy see the section in the main help 'Privacy, Hide a Plant'.
By adding filter rules you can narrow your search to pinpoint plants, and a set of filter rules can be saved by name for recall later.
Example 2: You are looking for plants that are not Cactus or Succulent. But It is important to realize that the field that holds that information 'Life Form' may not be filled in, the only compulsory field being 'Scientific Name'. You might want to include plants with empty 'Life Form' so that you don't miss any, even though some of them may turn out to be Cactus or Succulent.
Steps: 1) Press 'Delete' to remove the default group. 2) Press 'Add group'. 3) Select 'Life Form' 'not equal' 'Cactus'. 4) Press the 'Add rule' button immediately above where you entered the rule. 5) In the new rule at the bottom select 'Life Form' 'not equal' 'Succulent'. 6) In the top row of the tool press 'Add group'. 7) Also in the top row press 'OR' to change it from the default 'AND'. 8) In the empty rule at the bottom select 'Life Form' 'is empty'. The resulting logic is: find ((not Cactus AND not Succulent) OR empty).
