This morning I tried searching for Cladonia from the species search box. First I tried Clad which gave me two sites, so then I tried  Cladonia which produced 105 species in random order (why not alphabetical?).
I downloaded the list which gave me 409 species/varieties/aggregates each with a different taxon id.
Some species had multiple entries each witha different taxon id, but no other information - authorities not given.
NHMSYS0001477619     species    Cladonia conista
NHMSYS0001442611     species    Cladonia conista
NHMSYS0000361070     species    Cladonia conista
NHMSYS0020987602     species    Cladonia conista
NHMSYS002099007 4    species    Cladonia conista

There was no consistency in differentiating between species/ subspecies/variety/ aggregrate e.g. in the list
variety     Cladonia ceranoides tax.vag. infundibulifera
variety     Cladonia chlorophaea var. novochlorophaea
variety     Cladonia crispata f. infundibulifera
species aggregate     Cladonia coccifera f. cornucopioides
species aggregate     Cladonia coccifera var. cornucopioides
species     Cladonia coccifera var. deformis
species     Cladonia coccifera f. asotea
species     Cladonia sylvatica agg.
subspecies    Cladonia cervicornis subsp. verticillata
subspecies    Cladonia sylvatica agg.

Next I tried Cladonia cri - which produced the same 105 Cladonia species.
Next I tried Cladonia crispata, this produced 110 species, some of which were not Cladonia but carried the specific name crispata. I could then filter this to lichens and then had just 61 choices.

OK so lichens might be taxonomically difficult so I tried  Lycopus euro this produced the correct species link  Lycopus europaeus but also 3 localities for Council of Europe Boulevard and 1 for Europe Road.

I won't go through all the other combinations of names either full or abbreviated which I tried, but only rarely did I get a result which enabled me to to either quickly find the species I was looking for or locate it in a list.

I know the taxonomic databases are complex, but why if I search from the species page do I get locations?
Gateway 5 searches in a smilar manner using the binomial as two separate fields, and although it will produce a long list, the nearest match is at the top of the list.

Efficient species searching is key to the use of the system and needs to be robust and produce the expected results.
It would be appreciated if this could be put on the priority list.

Thank you

Christine