Lucid3 Key for SD Wildflower Families

This page last modified on 22 January, 2007

These pages are under construction!!  This page will initially duplicate some of the Overview page for the Asteraceae key, since both are based on Lucid3.  It remains to be seen whether it will be practical to provide a single overview page covering both Lucid3 keys, and possibly future detailed keys for other families.  Perhaps because of statistical differences, I'm finding that the best search strategies differ in the Families key compared with the Asteraceae key.

Start Lucid3 Families key.

NOTE: To use this Lucid3 based key, you need to have a recent version of the Java runtime environment installed on your computer (and turned on in your browser). See the LucidCentral website for details, or go to the Java website and click "Verify Installation" to find out whether you need to download a new version of Java. (Your Java version must be 1.4.2 or later; preferably 1.5+).

Drawings in this key which illustrate various botanic features are included with permission of Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah from the book "Plant Identification Terminology - An Illustrated Glossary" by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris, Copyright  1994 & 2001. Permissions granted to use my photographs found in this key do not extend to these drawings.

Unidentified Photos of Infrequently Seen Wildflowers - for use  as Practice Identification Exercises.

The following Notes should help re. use of this key:

• Why One Would Want to Use a Multiple-Entry Key
• Who Should (Should not) Find This Families Key Useful
•  
• Key Starts Up Slowly --- then Runs Quickly
•  
• Tips on using this key most effectively:  Pages showing a sample search for ID of a familiar plant.
•  
• Use of my Species Profile pages (Hopefully the Lucid Player itself will someday offer a similar facility.).
  • Open All Characters Profile (in a separately opened browser) to permit scrolling even when a Differences Pop-Up window is open. For this to work, you must open the separate browser AFTER opening the Differences window!!
• Notes on Number Valued Scores.

You can learn about the Lucid-3 software for constructing identification keys in general at http://www.lucidcentral.org.

-- Ken Bowles