Image‐driven electronic identification keys for invasive plant species in the Netherlands

Abstract

For several years work has been ongoing to compile information to facilitate the identification of non‐native plants that (potentially) pose a threat to the biodiversity of the ecozone comprising Northern Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and North‐Western France. Such identification information may also be used for species that are regulated by other countries and are likely to be present as contaminants in commercial exports originating from the Netherlands. This information system comprises a set of interactive image‐driven identification keys for invasive plants at various growth stages for use in a range of different situations: seed contaminants in bird feed, weeds in bonsai plants, seedling identification, identification keys of invasive terrestrial plants and invasive aquatic plants. The advantage of image‐driven identification keys using a multiple entry system lies in limiting misunderstandings in terminology and failure in identification, in the absence of certain characters, as is sometimes the case in dichotomous keys. The interactive keys are linked to the species information in the Q‐bank database, including datasheets, worldwide distribution maps, specimen level information, barcodes of selected species, etc. This information is now available at http://www.q-bank.eu/Plants/