Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants

Last updated

Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants
Type of site
Botanical identification key
Available inEnglish
Headquarters
Atherton
,
Australia
Key peopleFrank A. Zich, B.P.M. Hyland, Trevor Whiffin, Raelee A. Kerrigan (Edition 8)
URL https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html
CommercialNo
LaunchedDecember 2010 (2010-12)

Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, also known as RFK, is an identification key giving details—including images, taxonomy, descriptions, range, habitat, and other information—of almost all species of flowering plants (i.e. trees, shrubs, vines, forbs, grasses and sedges, epiphytes, palms and pandans) found in tropical rainforests of Australia, with the exception of most orchids which are treated in a separate key called Australian Tropical Rainforest Orchids (see External links section). A key for ferns is under development. [1] [2] RFK is a project initiated by the Australian botanist Bernie Hyland. [3]

Contents

History

The information system had its beginnings when Hyland started working for the Queensland Department of Forestry in the 1960s. It was during this time that he was tasked with the creation of an identification system for rainforest trees, but given no direction as to its format. [4] Having little belief in single-access keys, he began work on creating a multi-access key (or polyclave) which would eventually become RFK. [4] [5] He discussed the project with Neil Harvey from the Department's Brisbane office and received considerable assistance from him. Harvey was able to take the raw data given him by Hyland and convert it (using a Fortran program he wrote himself) into a format that could be used to create a key using the then standard 80-column punched cards. [4]

Early versions

These cards formed the basis of the key and were used in conjunction with a handbook. Edition 1 was published in 1972 and covered just 584 taxa, using 48 bark characteristics and 45 leaf characteristics to make an identification. Edition 2, published in 1983, expanded the number of taxa covered to 799, however this was almost the maximum capacity for the card-based system, and a new technology was required to expand it further. [4] [6]

Digitisation

In 1983 Hyland began a collaboration with Trevor Whiffin of La Trobe University, whom he had met in 1973, to expand the key even further. As well as planning for a computer version of the key, more species were added to the database as well as flower, fruit and seedling features and x-ray images of the leaves. [6] [4] This was a massive undertaking and Edition 3 was not completed until 1992, and released in November 1993 [4] It was published on CD-ROMs, covered 1056 taxa, and was available for the public to buy and use on Windows and Mac computers. It is possibly the first computer-based identification key in the world. Edition 4 was published in 2000, followed by Edition 5 in 2003, both CD-roms, bringing the total number of species covered up to 2154. [3] [7] [8]

Online access

In 2002 Bernie Hyland retired from the CSIRO where he then worked, but continued on as a CSIRO Honorary Research Fellow to continue to provide input to the project, which has since been headed by Frank Zich. [6] [9] [10] The next milestone in its development was Edition 6 (published 2010), which was transferred to the Lucid software a platform and released online for the first time, enabling free access to RFK for any interested person. It covered 2553 taxa and used 730 characteristics. Edition 7 added another 200 taxa and was published in 2018. [6]

Current version

Edition 8 (published 2020) represents another significant technological step forward, being available as a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, [1] [6] as well as the online version. It now covers 2762 species, uses over 730 features to make identifications, and contains around 14,000 images. [1]


Related Research Articles

<i>Harpullia</i> Genus of trees

Harpullia is a genus of about 27 species of small to medium-sized rainforest trees from the family Sapindaceae. They have a wide distribution ranging from India eastwards through Malesia, Papuasia and Australasia to the Pacific Islands. They grow naturally usually in or on the margins of rainforests or associated vegetation.

<i>Jagera</i> (plant) Genus of trees

Jagera is a genus of 4 species of forest trees known to science, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae.

<i>Diploglottis</i> Genus of flowering plants

Diploglottis is a genus of 10 species of trees known to science, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae. They grow naturally in rainforests and margins of adjoining humid forests in eastern Australia and New Guinea. Some species are known as native tamarind or small-leaved tamarind; they have no direct relationship with the true tamarind.

<i>Arytera</i> Genus of flowering plants

Arytera is a genus of about twenty–eight species known to science, of trees and shrubs and constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae. They grow naturally in New Guinea, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga; and the most widespread species and type species A. littoralis grows throughout Malesia and across Southeast Asia, from NE. India, southern China, Borneo, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines to as far east as New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

<i>Lepiderema</i> Genus of trees

Lepiderema is a genus of nine species of trees from the family Sapindaceae. As of November 2013 botanists know of seven species growing naturally in Australia and two species in New Guinea. Published botanical science provides a limited knowledge of the full range of diversity in Australia and especially in New Guinea. In New Guinea the two known species have descriptions based each on only a single type specimen collection. Therefore, collection of more specimens and more species is most likely in New Guinea. In Australia they grow in rainforests of the northern half of the east coast side of the Great Dividing Range, from northeastern New South Wales through to northeastern Queensland.

Bernard Hyland, known as Bernie Hyland, is an Australian botanist.

Hollandaea is a small genus of plants in the family Proteaceae containing four species of Australian rainforest trees. All four species are endemic to restricted areas of the Wet Tropics of northeast Queensland.

Sphalmium is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the protea family. The only species, Sphalmium racemosum, is a large forest tree. Common names include satin silky oak, mystery oak, Mt Lewis oak, poorman's fishtail oak and buff silky oak.

Nothorites is a genus of a sole described species of trees, constituting part of the plant family Proteaceae. The species Nothorites megacarpus grows naturally only in restricted mountain regions (endemic) of the wet tropics rain forests of north-eastern Queensland, Australia.

<i>Lasjia</i> Genus of trees of the family Proteaceae

Lasjia is a genus of five species of trees of the family Proteaceae. Three species grow naturally in northeastern Queensland, Australia and two species in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Descriptively they are the tropical or northern macadamia trees group. Lasjia species characteristically branched compound inflorescences differentiate them from the Macadamia species, of Australia, which have characteristically unbranched compound inflorescences and only grow naturally about 1,000 km (620 mi) further to the south, in southern and central eastern Queensland and in northeastern New South Wales.

<i>Mischarytera</i> Genus of plants

Mischarytera is a genus of rainforest trees, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae. Four species are known to science as of December 2013, found growing naturally in eastern Queensland, Australia, and in New Guinea. Formerly until 1995, they had names within the genus Arytera, subgenus Mischarytera.

<i>Sarcotoechia</i> Genus of trees

Sarcotoechia is a genus of tropical rainforest trees, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae.

Rhysotoechia is a genus of tropical rainforest trees, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae.

Synima is a genus of tropical rainforest trees, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae.

Cnesmocarpon is a genus of 4 species of rainforest trees known to science, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae.

<i>Gillbeea</i> Genus of flowering plants

Gillbeea is a genus of three species of Australasian rainforest trees from the family Cunoniaceae.

Hollandaea riparia, sometimes named roaring Meg hollandaea, is a species of Australian rainforest tree, in the plant family Proteaceae.

Peripentadenia is a genus of two species of large trees from the family Elaeocarpaceae endemic to the rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia. Sometimes they have the common name quandong.

Lindsayomyrtus is a monotypic genus in the family Myrtaceae, containling the single species Lindsayomyrtus racemoides, commonly known as Daintree penda. These large trees grow naturally in the rainforests of the Wet Tropics of Queensland in Australia, the Moluccas, New Guinea and New Britain.

Syzygium kuranda, commonly known as cherry penda, cherry satinash or kuranda satinash, is a tree of the family myrtaceae native to north eastern Queensland.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Online Keys to Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants". James Cook University, Australia. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  2. ↑ "Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants" . Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Hyland, Bernard (Bernie) - biography". Australian National Botanic Gardens, Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research. Australian Government . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hyland, Bernard. "History of 'Australian Tropical Rain Forest Trees' key". Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR). Australian Government . Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  5. ↑ Elick, Rebel; West, Judy G. (2002). "Bernie Hyland retires" (PDF). Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter. Australasian Systematic Botany Society Inc. 110 (March): 11–12. ISSN   1034-1218 . Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants" . Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Catalogue". National Library of Australia . Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  8. ↑ Forster, Paul I. (2004). "Reviewed Work: Australian tropical rain forest plants. Trees, Shrubs and Vines. CD-ROM and Manual by B.P.M. Hyland". Plant Systematics and Evolution. 247 (3/4): 255–258. doi:10.1007/s00606-004-0175-6. JSTOR   23654175. S2CID   43338796 . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  9. ↑ "Frank Zich". James Cook University . Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  10. ↑ "Zich, Frank Anthony (1968 - )". Australian National Herbarium. Retrieved 10 March 2021.

Notes

^a Lucidcentral both hosts the development of multi-access and other keys, together with the many interactive biological keys developed using Lucid software.
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