Kew Interactive Key Forum

Agenda

The Agenda has been finalised. You can view the agenda by clicking on this link.

The Malesian Key Project

Author: Rogier de Kok

The making of an interactive key has tree distinct phases, definition of characters and their states, character coding and the testing of the key. The character coding is the easiest and least time-consuming of the whole process, while the fist and third phases are often under estimated, both time-wise and in the complexity of the process. Two case studies are presented, the pea-key, a corroborative project dealing with a pea-flowering legumes of Australia (c. 1400 species) and the Malesian Seed Plant key a corroborative project dealing with the c. 350 families from the Flora Malesiana region.

From Floras to Interactive Keys

Author: Patricia Malcolm

Floras offer a means for the identification and correct naming of plants for a particular region. Kew’s tradition for writing Floras has lead to the production of 6 main African Floras, which together with other monographic work are gradually being digitised and will form part of the online e-floras resource. Having these works in digital form not only enables access to the Floras for users around the world through the internet, but also opens opportunities to improve and reuse this information. In this talk I will cover 3 ways in which the information in Floras and monographs can be used to build interactive identification systems. I will first describe the methodology used for the digitisation of Kew’s legacy works and how this information is now part of an online database for identification and nomenclatural queries (Flora Zambesiaca online). I will then demonstrate how Lucid Phoenix can be used to publish dichotomous keys online, using Phyllanthus key from Flora Zambesiaca as an example. And finally, I will demonstrate how to transfer character base information from a monograph (“Then genus Croton in Madagascar and the Comoro Is.” by A. Radcliffe-Smith – unpublished) into a DELTA/INTKEY system. With this key the user can arrive to a group of less than 10 taxa by using only 5 characters, out of a total of ~150 species of Croton.

An Interactive Key to the Genus Galanthus

Author: Ewan Gage

The genus Galanthus represents 19 species that have attracted the attention of gardeners for over 400 years and remain attractive ornamentals to this day. Propagation is mainly carried out by bulbs collected from the wild and this has lead to recent concerns regarding their conservation status and as such, the genus is now listed under CITES. This has lead to a demand for tools to aid in the identification of the members of this genus and so an attempt was made to develop an interactive key to the genus. A demonstration is given, alongside an outline of the problems associated with the identification of bulbous monocots and their potential solutions.

Sharing Information Between Projects

Author: Don Kirkup

A brief overview of Kew’s key projects and potential areas of overlap, available data standards, possible mechanisms and pitfalls.

The CATE Project

Authors: Anna Haigh & Simon Mayo

As part of the CATE project we are developing keys in Lucid 3 to the genera of Araceae, and to the genus Anthurium (ca. 800spp.), Arum and Philodendron. The key to Arum is already online. These keys will be incorporated into a web-based taxonomic revision of the Araceae family as the plant model group for the project. Anthurium presents a particular challenge as it is a very large and difficult genus, within which it is currently nearly impossible for non-specialists to determine plants to species. We hope the key will go some way to solving this problem.

A Comparison of Interactive Key Software

Author: Kehan Harman

While there are two key players in the current interactive key playing field, namely Delta/Intkey and Lucid, there are a myriad of other tools available for users to choose from depending on their needs. While Lucid and Intkey will cover most peoples needs there are a number of factors that need to be taken into account when choosing the right tool for the job.

In this talk I will try to introduce the principals behind interactive keys and the different methods that are available. I will cover Lucid and Delta/Intkey in some depth. I will then cover a number of the other interactive key tools available out there and will finish off with some recent developments and promising tools that are coming available including the IdentifyLife project.

For some additional reading see Mike Dallwitz’s Comparison.