Search

Our search-engine meets the requirements of various circles of users and can be used by all of them to the same extent and purpose: picture-editors and picture-users involved in art-buying and graphic editing as well as botanists and plant lovers.
Picture editors and botanical amateurs are best advised to try out combinations of key-words as they correspond to their own common sense. All terms in our syntax may be used in any desired combination and will lead to the corresponding picture-material, for example:

wood + spring + yellow
Alps + medicinal plant
allergy + pollen
garden plant + summer + red
creeper + garden + blue
savannah + Africa
Our Lady's Thistle + seed-bearing
Garden Tulip + red
etc.

Please note that key words should be used in singular (deciduous tree, not 'trees') and that the research limitation "Search for complete words only" may be very useful.
Our criteria for colours are orientated towards the corresponding colours in the pictures (and not the colours of the flowers of plants as in botanical handbooks: Sweet Cherry + white will show you blooming cherry-flowers, Sweet Cherry + red will show you the fruits). Therefore a mere combination of colours (yellow + green + blue) is also possible and will show you pictures whose composition is dominated by these colours.
Due to the German congruity in the meaning with the scientific names of roses (Rosa) the colour pink may not be called upon in our search engine; flowers of a light pink colour are to be found under white, darker pink will be found under red
Onions and bulbs (most members of the family of the Liliaceae) in our data-base are combined under the key-word of one keyword group: bulbous plant.

Further limitations of research results by means of key-words may be useful in journalistic research:
Perfume plants with healing effects (aroma plant + medicinal plant)
Bark structures of deciduous trees (deciduous tree + bark)
Plants from the traditional Ayurweda-knowledge which found entrance into the European applications of homeopathy (Ayurveda + homeopathy)
Tea-drugs produced from European plants (tea-drug + Europe)
and so on.

Lay-out-People and Picture users may specify their demands on picture composition in their research: soft will show you pictures of a soft appearance, of limited depth of field, blurry effects from motion or other soft elements in the composition.
Opposite light indicates the qualities of the light in the photographic composition and Close-up will show you details from a larger botanical context or deals with Macro-Studies.
Freestanding will show you compositions where parts of plants (for example fruits or nuts) have been photographed in front of a monochrome background - or plant documentations in a natural environment which may be cut out easily with picture-editing tools.
Try your luck in research with keyword-combinations like:

blue + soft
freestanding + fruit
freestanding + deciduous tree
opposite light + aroma plant
opposite light + sprouting (or: leaf bud)
close-up + seed-bearing + brown
etc.

Botanists may use our search engine on a more elaborate level to gain access to the available plant pictures. If you already know the name of a plant you are looking for (English or scientific) you simply enter this name and the requested pictures show up.
If your research via plant names is less purposive, you may (comparable to the usage of an encyclopaedia of plants) enter the catalogue of the menu in English or scientific lists and approach the plant documentation from that angle. - And if you want to use our photos for your own determination of a plant species, you may as well follow the hierarchy of the botanical system, since all our pictures of species and cultivars simultaneously carry the name of the respective plant-family. From the entrance of scientific family names (Osmundaceae, Papaveraceae, Hippocastanaceae etc.) you will gain a first view of all members of this family which are represented in our archive. From there you may narrow down your systematic research with further criteria like Plant family + continent (Pinaceae + Asia) or Plant family + Colour of the flower (Violaceae + blue).

Beyond the above-mentioned structure of our search-syntax we have activated an immense number of additional search terms and scientific botanical vocabulary: hoar-frost or white frost will specify your search for plant pictures in winter seasons. Taxol or cancer will show you plants which have to do with cancer research or cancer-specific medications. If it seems helpful to you, certain locations (towns or geographical areas) may be added to your research: Kyoto, Japan, Entrevaux, Ihringen, Mount Washington, Provence etc.
And if you do not know the name of a plant species (like English Roses), but you know the name of the Cultivar (for example Rosa 'Charles Austin') this name will be sufficient to show you all pictures of the English Rose-Cultivar 'Charles Austin' which are available through our archive.

And if you do not find the pictures you need - do not give up! Just give us a call
(Tel.: + 49 / (0)40 / 500 13 11 English spoken!) or send us a mail. We will be pleased to place all our knowledge and all our botanical competence at your disposal.

back to image search

Key-words / Search-syntax

back to image search