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Identification
• It is the determination of the correct name of
plants as being similar or different from an
already known plant.
• There are three basic information needed to
enable a person to identify an unknown plant
species.
These are:
• Pertinent taxa, from which you will compare
the unidentified specimen
• Useful differentiating characters of these taxa,
to be able to find out similarities and
differences between the pertinent taxa and
the unidentified specimen
• The taxon or characters themselves.
• Identification is necessary to determine the
group to which a certain species belong
usually by name so that information can be
retrieved from a classification or descriptive
system and to provide a system of
identification for ease, certainty and accuracy.
Methods of Identification
• Experts determination- this is the easiest and
quickest method of identification but now a
days this method is becoming more and more
expensive.
• Scientifically speaking, experts are people who
study taxonomy and working on a particular
plant group. However, some people who by
the nature of their jobs have been exposed to
a lot of plant species in the field and therefore
familiar to those species they often encounter.
Use of keys
• A key is an analytical device
consisting a series of constructing
statements or proportions that lead
to the identity of the species.
• A key to the identification of the taxa
of a group under study is one of the
most useful and most used products
of taxonomy
• The key, along with the descriptions of
the taxa, forms the principal interface
between taxonomists and the outside
world. However, a key in its usual form,
the dichotomous printed key may over
look useful characters , or he may have
choose to omit some characters in favor
of the one most useful character at each
dichotomy.
• More often, the user of a
dichotomous key may have a
specimen that does not possess the
organ discussed in the key, either
because insufficient collection or
collection at a different phenological
stage
• Another difficulty that the user may
experience is the considerable time spent in
familiarizing himself with the terminology and
philosophy of the writer of the key. Truly
dichotomous characters are rarely discovered
and overlapping character states are common.
• To overcome these problems of a lot
computer software's for species identification
were developed
• Computer identification softwares were
designated primarily for easy use by people
rather than convenience in computer
programming and is versatile enough to
replace the written description ad the primary
means of recording data.
• Consequently, it can be used as a shorthand
method of recording data even if computer
processing of the data is not envisaged.
• Among the most commonly used are DELTA (
Description Language for Taxonomy), LUCID
and LINNEAUS . These software's are readily
available and down load in the net.
Key construction
• GOOD LUCK