Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, also known as RFK, is an

identification key In biology, an identification key, taxonomic key, or biological key is a printed or computer-aided device that aids the identification of biological entities, such as plants, animals, fossils, microorganisms, and pollen grains. Identification k ...

giving details—including images, taxonomy, descriptions, range, habitat, and other information—of almost all

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

flowering plants Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

(i.e. trees, shrubs, vines, forbs, grasses and sedges, epiphytes, palms and pandans) found in

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...

s of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, with the exception of most

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

which are treated in a separate key called

Australian Tropical Rainforest Orchids Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

(see External links section). A key for

ferns A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except th ...

is under development. RFK is a project initiated by the Australian botanist

Bernie Hyland Bernard Hyland (Bernard Patrick Matthew Hyland, born 1937), known as Bernie Hyland, is an Australian botanist. He has contributed significantly to the understanding of Australian plants, in particular numerous species of his home and workplace ...

History

The information system had its beginnings when Hyland started working for the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

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. Having little belief in

single-access key In phylogenetics, a single-access key (also called dichotomous key, sequential key, analytical key, or pathway key) is an identification key where the sequence and structure of identification steps is fixed by the author of the key. At each point i ...

s, he began work on creating a

multi-access key In biology or medicine, a multi-access key is an identification key which overcomes the problem of the more traditional single-access key In phylogenetics, a single-access key (also called dichotomous key, sequential key, analytical key, or pathway ...

(or polyclave) which would eventually become RFK. He discussed the project with Neil Harvey from the Department's

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

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 card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

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 In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

, using 48 bark characteristics and 45

leaf A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

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.

Digitisation

In 1983 Hyland began a collaboration with Trevor Whiffin of

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...

, 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. This was a massive undertaking and Edition 3 was not completed until 1992, and released in November 1993 It was published on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

s, 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.

Online access

In 2002 Bernie Hyland retired from the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

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. The next milestone in its development was Edition 6 (published 2010), which was transferred to the

Lucid software LUCID (Langton Ultimate Cosmic ray Intensity Detector) is a cosmic ray detector built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and designed at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, in Canterbury, England. Its main purpose is to monitor cosmic rays usi ...

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.

Current version

Edition 8 (published 2020) represents another significant technological step forward, being available as a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android devices, as well as the online version. It now covers 2762 species, uses over 730 features to make identifications, and contains around 14,000 images.

References

External links

RFK website

Lucidcentral homepage

Notes

:{{note, lucid, a
Lucidcentral
both hosts the development of multi-access and other keys, together with the many interactive biological keys developed using Lucid software. Academic journals of Australia Tropical flora Online botany databases