Simplified User Guide for Multiple-Entry Asteraceae Key

This page last modified on 15 February, 2006

Here's a reduced illustration of what your browser window should contain when you first start this key:

Click over the small image to pop up a full size copy in a separate window.

Note that this key uses Frames (which must be turned on in your browser), and works only if the browser has its JavaScript option turned ON.

The right frame lists all of the Genera available. After the first character is chosen from the list in the left frame, the number of Genera still listed on the right will be reduced. Click the [D] button for any Genus to pop up a smaller window containing the full list of character values in the key for that Genus.

To designate a character value you want to apply to all Genera selected on the right, follow these two steps in order:

1. click in one of the little [  ] Yes boxes on the left side.  The box should fill with a check-mark.
2. click one of the two [Yes|No ...] buttons in the top frame. Both right and left frames should change, as will be explained.

For example: Notice that character #7 indicates there are 6 Genera with thistle-like heads, 100 Genera indicating absence of thistle-like properties, and 5 Genera for which the key lacks information on whether either Yes or No applies.  To get the following screen as a result, click Yes for 7. Head type thistle-like:, then click the [Yes|No Taxa Only] button at top:

In the Right Frame, the list of Genera has shrunk to just the 6 names for which the #7 Character value is "Yes".  The line below the list of Genera now shows that Yes for #7 was the first value selected from the Left Frame menu.

In the Left Frame, the legend for #7 has been adjusted to read on the right side.  If looking  at the same displayed contents while running the key on your browser, you could scroll-down in the Left Frame and find that Characters #36, #56, #76, #113, #132, #135 and #146 are all shifted to the right as well.  This indicates that all of the Genera shown in the Right Frame list share the Yes value for all of these Characters.  This might be a good time to check whether these Character Values are reasonable descriptions for the plant you are investigating.

Also in the new Left Frame list, notice that many numbered Characters are missing. This indicates that choice of either the Yes or No box for any of those missing Characters would have no effect on narrowing down the list in the Right Frame. For the Characters that do remain in the list, notice that the numbers corresponding to the Yes/No/Undef values are all reduced, and their total aggregates to the number of Genera still displayed in the Right Frame.

An important but subtle difference applies to the two [Yes|No ...] buttons in the Top Frame. Whereas the example just shown lists only Genera for which all items share the Yes character value, clicking [Yes|No + Undef Taxa] would have listed Genera having either Yes or Undef values. In most cases I've found it effective to use only the [Yes|No Taxa Only] button, as illustrated above.  But there are examples when you feel it important to include a character value for the plant you are studying, yet ultimately it turns out that The Jepson Manual (TJM hereafter) provides no information regarding the value of that character for the plant's actual Genus.  Only experience can tell you which way to play this!!

You continue selecting character values in this manner to reduce the number of Genera in the Right Frame list of taxa.  As a matter of strategy, it helps to select characters for which the Yes/No/Undef numbers still remaining will minimize the length of the resulting list. For example in the situation last displayed, we find:
142. Disk corollas pink or red-tinged:
[ ] Yes: 3; [ ] No: 3; Undef: 0

Select Yes, then click [Yes|No Taxa Only] to get this:

Both lists have been further reduced, and the Left Frame shows that the remaining Genera share Yes values for even more Characters.  Again it's a good time to go quickly through those shared Character values looking for a value that clearly is wrong for your sample.  This may be a situation where that value is just one of several possible values for some common Aspect such as Disk corolla color for which there are 7 possible values.  To check on that possible point of confusion, you could display the [D]etails list for one of the Genera still listed in the Right Frame.  Here is a snippet from that list for the Cirsium Genus:

If indeed you find that your last choice has taken you astray, you can use the [Back] button in the Top Frame to go back one step. But two CAUTIONS apply here: 

1. If you think you may wish to back up more than one step, it is important to use the same [Yes|No ... ] button for all of your choices. 
2. Because the JavaScript "standard" is violated in subtle but different ways by most browsers, the results you get from using the [Back] operation may differ from mine.

If you [Back] up, and then get a result that seems quite unreasonable ... it's time to start over with a fresh list.  Most of the time the [Restart] button will get you back to the original list with no selections. If in doubt, take your browser back to the page containing the Link from which you first started this Key. This little quirk also seems to be a JavaScript problem.  Eventually, I hope to be able to correct this (but any suggestion from a friendly JavaScript expert will be appreciated!).

To illustrate the final step in the sample search, I select Yes in
108. Phyllary surface glandular:
[ ] Yes: 1; [ ] No: 2; Undef: 0

getting a single Genus for which all of the Character Values on the Left are Yes.

The length of the long list of shared Characters resulting for this example indicates that Species within the Genus have a variety of values for several of the important identifying Characters. So there is clearly more work to be done, either in the printed TJM, or in Rosatti's key for Cirsium.  I've taken the liberty of converting that key (from the original Jepson Project download of the Meka keys) to SLIKS after adding one new Character at beginning of the list, i.e.
1. In San Diego County Checklist:
[ ] Yes: 6; [ ] No: 26; Undef: 0

To display that Cirsium key for only the San Diego County species, click the Cirsium link in the Right Frame, as shown in the figure above. Then select Character #1 using the [Yes|No Taxa Only] button to get the following:

I "leave it to the student" to pursue this sequence to its final Goal using a set of photographs and/or specimens in hand.

But a few general comments on my choice of Cirsium for this example are in order:

• Choice of the plants with Thistle-Like heads produced an example of manageable length for illustration.
• I have photographs that I identify as belonging to 3 different Cirsium species. I'll eventually post details of my choices from the key as annotation "Notes" associated with the photographs.
• The relatively long list of Characters still listed when I finally reached Cirsium did indeed indicate that I would need to consider fine points to reach final Species ID's.
• The Rosatti key for Cirsium was helpful, but I did find quite a bit of additional supporting information in the printed TJM.

Also, you'll find no Rosatti key for Genera which have only one Species member in San Diego County. At this writing, I've just provided a simple page to inform you of that fact if you click the Genus link in the Taxa Matching list. You'll find the full Genus level keys and both Genus and Species descriptions from TJM online at the Jepson website cited in my overview.  Eventually, it may be useful to link those keys and descriptions directly from this key ... but that's a project to be considered later.

Enjoy ... Ken Bowles