Botanical Resources


Biodiversity informatics and Interactive Keys

Our team of Botanists are involved in various initiatives from writing multimedia based applications to identify botanical species

The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants....... http://www.ipni.org/

Also see http://www.tropicos.org/

Global Biodiversity Information Facility: http://www.gbif.org/

Species Gateway: http://artportalen.se/Default.asp

The Prometheus Taxonomic Database:
http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/~prometheus/

DiGIR - Distributed Generic Information Retrieval: http://www.digir.net/

Digital Taxonomy http://digitaltaxonomy.infobio.net/ was born in January 1998 re-built using the fine CMSimple; provides a range of links on software, methodologies, standards, data sources, and projects related to biodiversity data management, with emphasis on open source and free software tools for biodiversity informatics. Also provides links of over 200 open source biological software related websites.

eFloras (2008). Published on the Internet http://www.efloras.org by Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA. Brach, A. R. & H. Song. 2006. eFloras: New directions for online floras exemplified by the Flora of China Project.Taxon 55(1): 188-192.

The DELTA programs originally developed at CSIRO Entomology; The DELTA format (DEscription Language for TAxonomy) is a flexible and powerful method of recording taxonomic descriptions for computer processing. It was adopted as a standard for data exchange by Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG).

Programs based on DELTA data files

ActKey. :http://flora.huh.harvard.edu:8080/actkey

DAP - ‘Delta Access Perl’. Free. WWW. Axel Findling.

DAWI - ’Delta Access Web Interface’. Free. WWW. Axel Findling.

Intkey. Free. Windows. Mike Dallwitz, Toni Paine, and Eric Zurcher.

NaviKey V4. Free. WWW (Java). Dieter Neubacher and Gerhard Rambold. V3. Dan McGillicuddy. V2.3. Michael Bartley and Noel Cross (Internet Archive: http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/computerlab/web_keys/navikey/).

ONLINE (PANKEY). Commercial. MS-DOS. Richard Pankhurst.

PollyClave. Free. WWW. Andrew Pavacic and Tim Dickinson.

SIIMM- ‘Serveur d’ Identification Interactive MultiMedia’. Free. WWW (Java). Pierre Goujon

DELIA. Integrated DELTA database management for MS-Windows. See also ‘Integration of taxonomic descriptive data across multiple database platforms and softwares (Weed Information Network - a case study)’.

DeltaAccess.Storing and processing DELTA data in MS-Access.

DELTA Menu System. MS-Windows shell for running DELTA programs.

DIANA. MS-Windows shell for running DELTA programs.

Free DELTA. An open-source system for processing taxonomic descriptions. Includes C++ classes for manipulating DELTA files.

PANDORA. Database system for taxonomic and biodiversity research projects. See also Internet Archive: www.rbge.org.uk/research/pandora.home.

PANKEY. Description writing, key-generation, and identification programs for MS-DOS.

TAXASOFT. A DELTA editor, and shell for running DELTA programs.

WebDelta. Perl program for Web entry of DELTA item descriptions. Internet Archive: irisbioc.bio.unipr.it/webdelta/webdelta.html

See Polyclaves: http://prod.library.utoronto.ca:8090/polyclave

Other links Delta

See Programs for Interactive Identification and Information Retrieval.

DELTA Newsletter archive

Methodology of interactive keys and descriptive databases

Programs for interactive identification and information retrieval

References. Applications and documentation of the DELTA System.

Utility programs for file compression, etc.

Lucid software is a special type of expert system, specifically designed for identification and diagnostic purposes, which enables expert knowledge to be “cloned” and distributed to a wide audience via CD or the Internet. The large number of functions incorporated in the software and the ability to include multi-media makes the creation and use of identification and diagnostic keys easy and effective.

See: http://utc.usu.edu/keys/default.html for lucid keys

SLIKS ((Stinger's Lightweight Interactive Key Software)- Javascript   program.

KEYS in SLIKS
All Grass Species of the US (by state) (Part of the USDA PLANTS Database)

All Gymnosperm Species of the US (Part of the USDA PLANTS Database)

Wetland Monocots of the USA (Part of the USDA PLANTS Database)

Visual key (VK) is a cross-platform, interactive, rich-graphic web application for identification of organisms. It was written on Java Script 1.2, which allows creation of fast and small programs simultaneously. It has a browser detection function and special branches for Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

MEKA (pronounced "mecca") is an interactive Multiple-Entry Key Algorithm to enable rapid identification of biological specimens.

See http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/meacham/meka/

Other Keys

20q. Free. WWW. John Pickering.

3I. Free. WWW. Dmitry Dmitriev.

FLORA. Windows. Hans ter Steege.

IdentifyIt (Linnaeus II). Mac, Windows. ETI.

PalmKey. PalmOS. Cam Webb.

PICKEY(Pictured Interactive Computerized biological KEY) - an interactive multi-entry polychotomous key for identification of organisms by intensive use of images.

PLATO. Windows. Elizabeth Dauncey.

POLLY.Windows. Trevor Whiffin.

TAXIS.Windows. Evgeniy Meyke.

A Project funded by


Project Duration


IFP CIRAD  Asia IT&C National University of Laos National Herbarium - Leiden