In addition to the previously available interactive key to wetland monocots of the US (ca. 2400 taxa), keys (by state) to grass (Poaceae) species in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, as well as a new key for all gymnosperm species in the US, are now available on the USDA NRCS PLANTS website (http://plants.usda.gov). See (http://npdc.usda.gov/technical/plantid_wetland_mono.html) for details.
All are freely available for use online, or for downloading for use with or without a web connection. In addition to dramatically optimizing the identification process, these keys are very rich sources of descriptive data. For example, nearly 300 character states are recorded for every species of grass. Each species in the key also directly links to the appropriate profile page on PLANTS, which includes images, common names, distribution maps, synomnyms, wetland indicator status, native status, wildlife habitat values and many other important pieces of information about it. The keys are running in SLIKS vers. 2.2 and 2.3 (http://www.stingersplace.com/SLIKS) which are optimized for use with MS Internet Explorer. SLIKS requires no installation or other special software. SLIKS is released under the GNU Public license, is free, and can be easily and legally modified by users with very minimal programming experience. The data in the keys is also free and can be used in other applications. All monocot data were developed cooperatively by the Missouri Botanical Garden and the USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center and were compiled from numerous sources by Dr. David Bogler of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The gymnosperm data were developed cooperatively by Oregon State University and compiled from several sources by Stephen C. Meyers, Oregon State University in collaboration with Aaron Liston, Oregon State University, Steffi Ickert-Bond, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Damon Little, New York Botanical Garden. New keys for all legumes, all Ericaceae, and all remaining monocot species in the US are currently in development and are forthcoming. Gerald F. Guala, Ph.D. USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center P.O. Box 74490 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70874-4490 USA Tel: 225.775.6280 Fax: 225.775.8883 http://npdc.usda.gov http://plants.usda.gov
