Computer-Generated Keys and Descriptions of the Flora of Saudi Arabia: A Pilot Study on Some Grasses from Jazan

Document Type : Regular issue (Original Article)

Authors

1 Faculty of Science, El-Arish University, El-Arish, N. Sinai, Egypt

2 Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia

3 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

THIS IS THE FIRST use of computer programs to construct keys and descriptions of plants in the flora of Saudi Arabia or any other country in the Arabian Peninsula. The program suit DELTA was used to generate a conventional key to 55 species of Poaceae collected from Jazan region, Saudi Arabia, on the basis of a dataset comprising 50 easily observable morphological characters. Together with the key, the outcome of the computer run includes descriptions for individual species in natural language based on the entirety of the 50 characters recorded for every species to be used in the confirmation of its identity. The computer-generated key avoids the numerous inconsistencies encountered frequently in its traditional counterparts, and can easily be regenerated to accommodate additional taxa and/or characters. This study was undertaken as a model for other studies aiming at improving floristic studies in Saudi Arabia and the procedure adopted here is equally applicable to all other groups of wild and cultivated plants in the the country.

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