Orchid and Orchid Species Discovery Software Gains Popularity

Only three months after the debut of OrchidWiz Encyclopedia, the software has become the most popular application for researching hybrids and species.

Miami Shores, FL (PRWEB) February 16, 2006 –- Announced only three months ago, OrchidWiz Encyclopedia is today the #1 software publication in its niche market, with hundreds of shipments to date. The software is now used in 36 US states and Puerto Rico. Outside the US, OrchidWiz Encyclopedia is in use in 13 countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom and Venezuela. Three US states combined account for almost 100 users: California, Florida and Texas.

The latest release of OrchidWiz Encyclopedia, version 2.0, was greeted with even greater enthusiasm. In less than three weeks, two thirds of the user-base migrated successfully to the new version.

Manuel Aybar, an American Orchid Society judge in Dallas, Texas, says of the latest release: "Just when you thought that Orchidwiz 1.0 software was amazing, it just keeps getting better with the 2.0 release. This new release includes an awesome feature, the statistics on number of flowers/buds per inflorescence. What a great tool when you are at the judging table, no more wasting time calculating after we nominate a plant for scoring. Also, the ability to get the data/pictures to Excel or PowerPoint is great! Now I can dump any analysis from Orchidwiz directly into my PowerPoint presentations when I am speaking on species building blocks or other orchid related subject."

OrchidWiz Encyclopedia is the only standalone software containing the complete list of orchid species from Kew’s List of Monocots: more than 25,000 species in total. This is helpful to anyone needing to quickly find the taxonomic source for, or place an uncommon or never-before-awarded species, especially at a remote site. The application contains a sophisticated algorithm which allows the user to find the accepted species name from synonyms, varieties and even common misspellings.

The program is also the most up-to-date software. The 2.0 release data includes both the September and the December orchid registrations and AOS awards. These represent six months of data unavailable in any other published software. "This year we received the December 2005 Awards Quarterly on January 23, 2006," says Alex Maximiano, Managing Director at OrchidWiz. "Within two days we had extracted and parsed all the data, and within a week we were mailing updated software to volunteer testers."

OrchidWiz, LLC, is a software company based in Miami Shores, Florida. The company develops computer programs for the orchid-growing community. For a list of data sources, consult the company’s web page. A portion of the 2006 OrchidWiz Encyclopedia proceeds will be donated to the American Orchid Society.

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