GuiaTreeKey, a multi-access electronic key to identify tree genera in French Guiana

By

Engel, Julien
Brousseau, Louise
Baraloto, Christopher

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2016

Original Publication

PhytoKeys

Volume

68

Pages

27-44

Subjects

Amazonia , Electronic key , French Guiana , morphological characters , Neotropics , trees identification , XPER²

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers [2010]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.68.8707

 

Abstract

The tropical rainforest of Amazonia is one of the most species-rich ecosystems on earth, with an estimated 16000 tree species. Due to this high diversity, botanical identification of trees in the Amazon is difficult, even to genus, often requiring the assistance of parataxonomists or taxonomic specialists. Advances in informatics tools offer a promising opportunity to develop user-friendly electronic keys to improve Amazonian tree identification.<br> Here, we introduce an original multi-access electronic key for the identification of 389 tree genera occurring in French Guiana terra-firme forests, based on a set of 79 morphological characters related to vegetative, floral and fruit characters. Its purpose is to help Amazonian tree identification and to support the dissemination of botanical knowledge to non-specialists, including forest workers, students and researchers from other scientific disciplines.<br> The electronic key is accessible with the free access software Xper², and the database is publicly available on figshare: https://figshare.com/articles/GuiaTreeKey/2682550 (doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.2682550).