ActKey was developed to enable ready-access to on-line interactive keys, including partly illustrated implementation of the punched card system for flowering plant family identification (by Hansen, B., and K. Rahn. 1969. Determination of angiosperm families by means of a punched-card system. Dansk Botanisk Arkiv 26:1-46 + 172 punched cards) and many other sources. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
Courseware (useful images even for intermediate audience, distribution maps, lecture texts) used in the Plant Systematic Course at the University of Illinois. [Information of the supplier, modified]
This WWW form is an implementation of the Hansen and Rahn punched card system for flowering plant family identification. It is comprehensive to enable world wide flowering plant identification. In the original form, each card of the deck is labeled as one character (actually, character state, such as “Leaves Opposite”), there being 172 cards in the deck. On each card there are 411 numbered circles, each corresponding to a family of flowering plants. If the character listed on the card was known to be present in at least one member of a family, that family number-circle was punched open. The process of identification requires sorting through the deck of cards, pulling out those that present characters observed in the specimen that is being identified, putting this set of cards together in a stack, holding the stack of cards up to a light source, and seeing which family numbers were punched through on all the cards in the stack. If a suitably large number of character cards are selected, only a single family number will be punched on all the cards, and the identification will have been made. More typically, a number of families will be identified as possible. The punch card system is a process of elimination. Selecting a card excludes certain families because their numbers are not punched on that card. Because a family number is punched if ANY member of the family has that feature, only those families that the specimen could not possibly be are determined by each character card selection. If a mistake is made in selecting a card because of misinterpretation of the character or in examining the specimen, misidentification might occur. ... [Information of the supplier]
There are about 100 families of plants across the frost-belt of the continent, with at least 30 additional families occurring farther south where it never freezes. Through this article I will introduce you to seven of the largest and easiest-to-recognize families of plants, which are found worldwide. In the next hour or two you will learn the basic patterns of identification and many of the uses for more than 45,000 species of plants worldwide. Take a little bit of time to practice these patterns where ever you go - in gardens or weed patches, botanical gardens, the nursery, the florist, or the wild. When you learn to instantly recognize these and other family patterns, the world of plants will never look quite the same again. The following pages are meant to be read in order, as new ideas are introduced on each page to prepare you for the following page. ... [Information of the supplier]
Useful references to help in identifying native and introduced plants and finding out about the Australian flora - This is a listing of books, and a very few journal papers, for basic botanical reference and plant identification (with some emphasis on native flora of N.S.W. and the A.C.T.). It is prepared for use by students, by the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) Visitor Information Centre, and other users. This bibliography is intended for the non-specialist, and lists fairly broad-scale works. Not all are in print, and some may be found in fairly specialist libraries only. ... [Information of the supplier]
The Families of Flowering Plants: included are family synonyms; comprehensive information on numbers of species and genera in each family, and complete lists of the genera in each; the complete classifications, to the level of Order, of Dahlgren (1980), Cronquist (1981) and Takhtajan (1980) for Dicots, and of Dahlgren, Clifford and Yeo (1985) for Monocots, and the APG classification (1999, 2003). Extensive illustrations of both taxa and characters are available via Intkey (interactive key). ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
