Tuesday 1 March 2016

New multi-access grass key

Timothy Phleum pratense
Image courtesy of J. Crellin
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.
php?taxon=phleum_pratense,1
I was at a local Recorders Conference on Sunday and the stand-out talk for me was Rich Burkmar of the Field Studies Council talking about the Tomorrow's Biodiversity project. 

The talk, about the many resources available to biological recorders via the ID Signpost, an on-line searchable catalogue of resources, was fascinating in itself but what really started stirrings in the audience was when he demonstrated this new multi-access ID key to grasses

Mutterings of "Wow!" and "how have they done that?" were swiftly followed by the sound of smartphones being extracted from delegates' pockets and then bleeping as they accessed the on-line key. 

Why not try it out on a grass and see what you think? I just got an ID of Cat's-tails and Timothy by putting in just two characters (glumes and awns) for Phleum pratense

I'm sure Rich and his team would welcome any feedback about the key, which only went live on Friday. Why not leave a comment in the box below and I'll forward it to Rich? Or, if you are on Twitter, you can contact him here

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