You see a pretty tree in the local bush, or rainforest, or on your new block of land. You want to find out what it is, but nobody seems to know.
There’s a new tool that has just been released this week, that helps with a big chunk of the problem. It is an interactive identification key, on a USB, called:
It’s available from http://rainforests.net.au or http://www.rainforestpublishing.com.au , where you can also see some good illustrations showing what’s in the program.
The plants it covers are trees (including fern trees and palms), shrubs, climbers, and mistletoes. The definition of “rainforest” is very broad. All our local dry rainforest and scrub plants are in there, even those which are technically of "rainforest type", but grow in obviously non-rainforest situations out on the Downs. You’ll find wilgas, for instance.
The program costs $80.00. My first thought, being a frugal body, is that it is somewhat expensive. However, I had a second thought which is that it contains so very much more than could ever be put into in a single book that’s it’s a bargain. For instance there are over 12,000 photos!
The best thing is the key itself. My experience with conventional plant keys is that I can get lost somewhere in the pick-a-path process. This key, having the advantages of computer technology, lets you arrive at an ID from many different angles.
The keying-out process begins with the total list of plants, all 1139 of them, and every time you add a bit of information, it gets shorter, until you are left with the answer to your question.
First you put in what type of plant you have (tree, climber, palm, etc). At once, the list is shortened as other plant types are subtracted from it.
Then you might put in that your mystery plant has pink fruits. All the plants without pink fruits disappear from the list. Put in a few other characteristics that are obvious to you - maybe the geographical area, the size of the fruits, and the length of the leaves, and you may even end up with just your target plant left on the list already!
If you haven’t got there yet, there are loads of other questions you can answer to work towards an ID. At first some of these can look daunting. Is the leaf elliptic, ovate or lanceolate, for instance? What do the words mean?
No worries, clicking on a little icon next to the words brings up an illustrated description of all the leaf shapes, so you can easily find the word that best matches your plant sample.
The plant descriptions are also a help. Each plant name in the list has little icons beside it.
Clicking on them brings up a written description with photos, and a black and white sketch showing important identifying features. The pictures are a help when you have got the list of possible plants down to the last few, but can’t decide which one is your unidentified plant.
The other great thing is that there is a species index. You click on a plant name that interests you, and by the time you’ve read the description and looked at the photos of the whole plant, plus close-ups of the trunk, flowers, fruits, leaves (both sides) and so on, you really feel you know the plant.
Great stuff!
No comments:
Post a Comment