PLU
Virtual Herbarium
After using a
dichotomous key and checking a detailed description and illustrations of the
species you are working on, you should take a final step to verify your
identification. There are several options for this final step:
Probably the easiest is to check with a local authority (however, in the real
world that may not always be possible); secondly, you can visit a herbarium to
match your specimen with a named specimen in the collection (if you are close to
a college, university, or museum herbarium); and finally, you could consult this
website or another "virtual herbarium" maintained by a reputable
regional organization that has verified images available on line.
The
images linked to this page should prove helpful in checking your identification
and may, in fact, be better than utilizing herbarium sheets. The images on
this site are for the most part from
Pierce County
,
Washington
. Most of the descriptions that accompany the images are from Creso 19841
and, unless otherwise indicated, the photographs are by and copyrighted to John
Main*.
The
images are indexed by family and by species; vernacular
names can be found on the individual species page. You will no doubt note
that some of the names (binomials) do not correspond to those in your key;
name changes are made based on new information and classifications are
necessarily revised. You will find both the currently accepted name and
hopefully the name used in your key in the species index. The
traditional family names allowed by the ICBN are cross listed in parentheses
with the newer names e.g., Asteraceae (Compositae), Brassicaceae
(Cruciferae), Lamiaceae (Labiatae), etc. The family nomenclature
used in your key should have also been preserved here, though you should be
aware of the variation in family names utilized by other classifications
systems; for more information on the subject see USDA
- APHIS -- Concordance of Family Names. One example of family level
classification change is the Ericaceae family which is probably broadly
circumscribed in your key (with the exception of the Empetraceae) but has been
in the past and continues in some cases to be split into separate families
including the Monotropaceae, Pyrolaceae, and others. Keep in mind, however, that
splitting the family in such a fashion would leave the Ericaceae s.s. paraphyletic.
1Creso,
I. 1984. Vascular Plants of
Western Washington
. Irene Creso, Publisher.
*
Images may be used for personal or educational purposes without prior
permission. Prior written permission is required for any use where the
images are publicly available in any form; contact mainjl@plu.edu
. At this point in time the only other photographer with images
represented on this site is Ben Legler, and inquiries about or for use of his
images should be directed to him at blegler@u.washington.edu.