Plant Identification
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CONSERVATION SERIES plant identification CREATING USER-FRIENDLY FIELD GUIDES FOR BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT ANNA LAWRENCE AND WILLIAM HAWTHORNE Plant Identification PEOPLE AND PLANTS CONSERVATION SERIES Series Editor Martin Walters Series Originator Alan Hamilton People and Plants is a joint initiative of WWF, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Applied Ethnobotany: People, Wild Plant Use and Conservation Anthony B. Cunningham Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge: Equitable Partnerships in Practice Sarah A. Laird (ed) Carving Out a Future: Forests, Livelihoods and the International Woodcarving Trade Anthony Cunningham, Brian Belcher and Bruce Campbell Ethnobotany: A Methods Manual Gary J. Martin People, Plants and Protected Areas: A Guide to In Situ Management John Tuxill and Gary Paul Nabhan Plant Conservation: An Ecosystem Approach Alan Hamilton and Patrick Hamilton Plant Identification: Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management Anna Lawrence and William Hawthorne Plant Invaders: The Threat to Natural Ecosystems Quentin C. B. Cronk and Janice L. Fuller Tapping the Green Market: Certification and Management of Non-Timber Forest Products Patricia Shanley, Alan R. Pierce, Sarah A. Laird and Abraham Guillén (eds) Uncovering the Hidden Harvest: Valuation Methods for Woodland and Forest Resources Bruce M. Campbell and Martin K. Luckert (eds) Plant Identification Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management Anna Lawrence and William Hawthorne London • Sterling, VA First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2006 Copyright © World Wide Fund for Nature, 2006 The moral right of Anna Lawrence and William Hawthorne to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. This publication is an output from a research project funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. R7475 and R7367 Forestry Research Programme. All rights reserved ISBN-10: 1-84407-079-4 ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-079-4 Typesetting by MapSet Ltd, Gateshead, UK Cover design by Yvonne Booth Index by Indexing Specialists (UK) Ltd Printed and bound in the UK by Bath Press For a full list of publications please contact: Earthscan 8–12 Camden High Street London, NW1 0JH, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7387 8558 Fax: +44 (0)20 7387 8998 Email: [email protected] Web: www.earthscan.co.uk 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012, USA Earthscan is an imprint of James and James (Science Publishers) Ltd and publishes in association with the International Institute for Environment and Development A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lawrence, Anna. Plant identification : creating user-friendly field guides for biodiversity management / Anna Lawrence and William Hawthorne. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-079-4 ISBN-10: 1-84407-079-4 1. Plants—Identification—Guidebooks. I. Hawthorne, William. II. Title. QK97.5.L39 2006 580—dc22 2005031809 Printed on elemental chlorine-free paper Contents List of plates, figures, tables and boxes ix List of case studies xiii People and Plants partners xiv Acknowledgements xv 1 Identifying biodiversity: Why do we need field guides? 1 Anna Lawrence and William Hawthorne Introduction 1 How do we ‘know’ nature? Classifying, naming and recognizing 2 Field guides 3 How to use this book 5 2 Producing a successful guide: Principles, purpose, people and process 11 Anna Lawrence and Patricia Norrish What makes a successful guide? 11 Purpose 11 Principles 12 People 14 Process 15 3 Planning and budgeting 23 Anna Lawrence, Ana Paula Lopes Ferreira, Maria Theresa Stradmann, Israel Vargas, Claudia Jordán, Marcelino Lima, Patricia Norrish, Sarah Gillett and Teonildes Nunes Introduction 23 Step 1: Identify the needs and purpose of the guide with the stakeholders 24 Methods for consulting 34 Step 2: Review the scope in relation to available resources 41 Step 3: Prepare an action plan and agreements with stakeholders 53 Summary: Checklist of questions for the planning stage 56 4 Plant names and botanical publication 61 William Hawthorne and Stephen Harris Introduction 61 Naming, identification and classification 61 The spectrum of botanical literature 72 Landmarks in the spectrum of field guides today 77 Your field guide within the spectrum of types 87 vi Plant Identification 5 Identification: Keys and other access methods 91 William Hawthorne Introduction 91 Types of guide: Types of access 95 Choosing access methods and the medium for your field guide 117 Conclusions 119 6 Plant characters suitable for field guides 121 William Hawthorne Introduction 121 Characters of younger stems and leaves 126 Characters of whole plants or plant populations 138 Conclusions 149 7 Information: Finding it and presenting it 151 Anna Lawrence Introduction 151 Kinds of information 151 Managing information in a database 152 Nomenclature 153 Selecting, sampling and recording your sources of information 156 Primary data: Information direct from people 158 Secondary sources: Information from existing documented sources 169 Ownership, intellectual property rights and copyright 173 Accuracy and reliability 174 Writing 176 8 Illustration 183 William Hawthorne and Rosemary Wise Introduction 183 The content of a picture: Some general principles 183 The options for illustrative material 191 Use of computers for handling illustrations 204 Conclusions: Choosing and using imagery 211 9 Testing the field guide 215 Anna Lawrence, Pat Norrish, Maria Theresa Stradmann, Israel Vargas, Edwin Magariños, Jorge Costa, Claudia Jordán and Teonildes Nunes Introduction 215 Overview of the testing process 216 Methodology 218 Organizing workshops for testing 223 Preparing materials for testing 229 Documentation: Instructions and forms for the test 232 Using the results of tests and workshops 234 Contents vii 10 Publishing the field guide 235 Anna Lawrence Introduction 235 Choosing a publisher 236 Do-it-yourself publication 237 Desktop publishing 238 Finalizing content 240 Printing 240 Getting your guide to the users 242 Follow-up: Tracking the success of your field guide 244 List of acronyms and abbreviations 249 References 251 Index 261 List of plates, figures, tables and boxes PLATES The plate section is after the index on page 269 1 Copperplate engravings from Hans Sloane’s early guide to Caribbean plants and animals 2 Example of a diagrammatic, dichotamous key based on images 3 A sample of the wide range of tree bole and base forms found in West Africa 4 A sample of the wide range of liane wood found in West Africa 5 Part of the spectrum of bark slashes found in West Africa 6 Colour photographic Cola leaf guidelets in Cameroon 7 Samples of modular photoguides tested in Ghana 8 Samples of the photo-cards, paintings and drawings used in format trials in Grenada FIGURES 1.1 A page from the Virtual Field Herbarium website 6 2.1 The process of producing a field guide 16 2.2 Example of a botanical guide page layout 19 3.1 Indigenous villagers in Bajo Paraguá, Bolivian Amazon, prioritize species to include in their guide to useful plants 40 4.1 Illustration from the Grete Herbal of 1526, an era when botany had not acquired a great deal of scientific rigour 62 5.1 Simple multi-access key to groups based on latex and leaf form 105 5.2 Screenshot of an e-key in action 115 5.3 The evolution of the Australian rainforest key 116 6.1 Moderate levels of jargon in a field guide glossary 132 6.2 Leaf venation 135 6.3 Distinctive forms of two species of Bombacaceae in West Africa 140 6.4 A minority of species have crowns that can be illustrated with silhouettes 141 6.5 Standardizing use of terms for a tree field guide 144 8.1 Sample guidelet pages from the formats tested in the DFID–FRP Field Guide Project for Cameroonian Cola 185 8.2 Sample guidelet pages (A5 or A6) tested in the DFID–FRP project for Ghanaian large trees 186 x Plant Identification 8.3 Sample guidelets (A6 cards) with drawings of Grenadian plants, tested in the DFID–FRP project 187 8.4 Leaf silhouettes created using a scanner 190 8.5 Making an image that can substitute for a line drawing from a digital photograph 202 8.6 The problem with saving the same compressed JPEG file too often 208 TABLES 3.1 Examples of stakeholders who may be involved in producing a field guide 26 3.2 Options for guides based on the four key aspects 32 3.3 Comparing different physical designs of guides 33 3.4 An example of a calendar from the Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN) and the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) 46 3.5 Printing options and associated costs 51 3.6 Suggestions for professionals required to produce a field guide 60 4.1 Floras and field guides: A comparison 75 4.2 Regions or countries of high biodiversity and the number of Floras for these areas 77 4.3 The spectrum of field guides 78 5.1 Various formats of dichotomous or similar keys 101 5.2 Dawkins’s primary table 104 6.1 Jargon level: How unnecessary is that word or phrase? 126 6.2 Definition by various authors of some hair-related terms 127 6.3 Where to look for and use various classes of character 147 7.1 Comparing methods for storing data 154 7.2 Linking the method and source to the kind of information needed 159 8.1 The three main categories of illustrative material