Matthew D. Barrett, Benjamin M. Anderson, Kevin R. Thiele
There are four screens. Initially you are at the Home screen, with a range of options to choose from.
It is recommended, especially for beginners and those unfamiliar with Triodia, to carefully read the Is it a Triodia? and Collecting tips sections accessible from SpiKey’s home screen. These provide helpful and sometimes critical information for accurate identification. Some features are defined in quite specific ways to allow discrimination; we strongly recommended that you read through the feature profiles when selecting features, and refer back to them often.
To key out a Triodia specimen, tap on the Identify a spinifex link. This will open the key, which has three screens. The Features page lists features and their possible character states to choose from. The Species screen, accessed by swiping right, shows the remaining species that match your current selection of features.
Select a character state by touching its check box. A tick will appear showing your choice. De-select features by un-checking the box. In some cases a measurement is required; touch the right arrow and input a single number (or a range. e.g. 1-3).
Each character, and species has a profile page that can be accessed by touching the name of each item. Images depicting each state and species that can also be accessed though these pages. Swiping left or right allows you to scroll though the pages of the features and species.
As you enter more features, your ‘description’ of the plant becomes more complete, and the number of remaining species will diminish, until only one or a few species remain.
The Wand icon (Find Best) takes you directly to the most discriminating feature separating remaining species. If you cannot use the first discriminating feature, touch the wand again to find the next best feature, and so on.
Once you are down to one or a few species, go to the species profile page for each, where you will find detailed notes on distinguishing them from all other species under the Similar species section. Also see the Identification without florets section, which contains more information about distinguishing co-occurring species.
Triodia species can be very variable, and some features are easily misinterpreted, so we recommend that you double-check at least the distribution and Similar species notes to be confident that you have the correct identification.
To start a new identification, touch the restart icon.
SpiKey: An interactive key to Triodia spinifex grasses of the Pilbara, Western Australia is published by Identic Pty Ltd.
©Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority
Copyright of the individual photographs and images remains with the photographer.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1988, no part may be reproduced or distributed by any process of stored in any retrieval system or data base without prior written permission from the copyright holder.
Dr. Matthew Barrett is a Research Scientist with the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, Perth, Western Australia, and the University of Western Australia. Matt has extensive research interests in the taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, ecology and conservation of Australian plants and fungi. He has a particular interest in the evolution of tropical and arid zone plants. Matt was lead researcher on an ARC-funded linkage grant between 2012–2015, exploring the genetic diversity of Triodia hummock grasses. This key summarises the knowledge gathered during that project.
Dr. Benjamin Anderson was a PhD candidate associated with the aforementioned ARC Triodia project, focusing in detail on the complex T. basedowii group. His detailed genetic studies identified an additional eight undescribed species in the group. Since this group has a centre of diversity in the Pilbara region, his work contributed substantially to the species treated here.
Kevin Thiele was until recently the Head of the Western Australian Herbarium, and a co-supervisor of Ben Anderson’s Triodia basedowii project. He led the development of Lucid, the identification application that underpins SpiKey.
Ian Cotton of Pilbara Corridors was instrumental in obtaining funding for the development of this app, to translate the extensive body of Triodia diversity research from the ARC Linkage project into an accessible format. Pauline Grierson and Siegy Krauss were instrumental in managing the ARC research program that generated the data and concepts on which this key is based.
Phil Davidson is thanked for alerting us to the existence of Triodia mallota, and discussions about different forms in the west Pilbara. Scott Reiffer of Rio Tinto is thanked for obtaining type specimens, images of habitat, and geological information around Pannawonica. Malcolm Trudgen is thanked for giving access to his extensive Triodia records, contributions to the paper describing Triodia pisoliticola, and discussions about variation and distribution of Pilbara species. Steven van Leeuwen provided assistance by obtaining funding for both this app and the earlier ARC project, as well as assisting with field trips and contributing his extensive knowledge of the Pilbara and its flora. Thanks to Kelly Shepherd for detailed discussions on an early paper version of this key, which significantly improved character terminology and illustration format. Ben Miller of Kings Park and Botanic Garden provided assistance creating the maps.
Trudy Worthington and her team from Rio Tinto Iron Ore are particularly thanked for logistic support associated with Pilbara field work. Todd Bell, Venicia Giannasi and Roy Hill Iron Ore are thanked for assisting with the discovery of a new species in the east Pilbara, and providing funding for its formal description.
Pilbara Corridors is gratefully acknowledged for providing the primary funding for development of this app. The Pilbara Corridors Project is an initiative of Rangelands NRM, Greening Australia and the WA Department of Biodiversity and Attractions (formerly Parks and Wildlife), and supported through funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Programme.
The taxon concepts and investigations into species limits were mostly conducted during an Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP120100350 (CIs Grierson, Krauss et al., in collaboration with The University of Western Australia, Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Chevron Australia Pty Ltd, Kings Park and Botanic Garden (formerly Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority) and the Department of Parks and Wildlife).
BMA was supported by an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship, an Australian Postgraduate Award, and a Top-up Scholarship at The University of Western Australia.
Matt Taylor and Damian Barnier (Identic Pty Ltd) assisted enormously with the development, packaging and launch of the App.
Michi Maier (Biota) and staff at the Western Australian Herbarium are thanked for road-testing a draft version of SpiKey. Christy Barrett assisted with image formatting and manipulation.
This app was produced using Lucid Builder 3.6.1, and Fact Sheet Fusion v2 (Identic Pty Ltd, QLD, Australia).
Please cite this work as:
Barrett MD, Anderson BM & Thiele K (2017) SpiKey: An interactive key to Triodia spinifex grasses of the Pilbara, Western Australia. Version 1. Identic Pty Ltd, Brisbane.
ISBN 978-1-876479-20-6