After some brainstorming, we decided that we can solve our problem in quite a conventional way; we can simply transform the input field into one that provides an auto-suggestion dropdown. Here's a mockup:

This auto-suggestion dropdown would have the following characteristics:

• When a term is typed, it will display a prioritized list of plant names that contain that term as a prefix, for example, searching for car will yield the result carnea but not encarea
• When a term is selected either by click, the arrow (up/down), or Enter key, it will run a specified function (which may later be used to add selected items to the user's collection)
• When no matching plant names can be found, the user will be told with a notice such as No plants with that name exist

These are the core behaviors of our component, and in order to implement them, we'll need to consider both client-side and server-side parts. Our client will have to render <input> to the user, and as they type, it will have to dynamically adjust the list of suggestions. The server will have to provide to the client a list of suggestions for each potential query, while taking into consideration the fact that results will need to be delivered quickly. Any significant latency will drastically reduce the benefit of the user experience that we're trying to create.