Create Your Own Dichotomous Key
Comments
2 responses to “Create Your Own Dichotomous Key”
-
Hi Alissa –
Your descriptions and indenting of the couplets looks good. There are a couple of things, however, that you will want to take a look at.
First, if the descriptor in the couplet doesn’t resolve to a plant, you want to point to the next couplet – you want to tell the reader where to go next. So your A’ descriptor should tell the reader to go to Couplet B (A’ -> B).
Couplet B is a bit problematic, in that Plants 2, 3 and 4 all have hairs. There IS something, however, that distinguishes Plant 4 from Plants 2 and 3. It’s subtle and easy to miss, but once you see it, you can’t unsee it. If you feel stuck, take a look at some of the other submissions by your classmates.
Couplet C is good. You can also say “C has purple petals” and “C’ has white petals” – since both resolve to a plant.
Go ahead and edit your submission with your fixes. Try again.
Thanks,
Steph -
Hi Alissa – Nice to see you outside of Intro to Ethnobotany! I initially tried to create a key that noted the hairs too, and really struggled with it because it looked like Plant 4 had hairs too. I ended up splitting by petals, then by petal colors. I think if you left out the first section with needles, and started with the hairs, you could pare it down by hair/petal/color? I love the presentation and hope I’ll get to see some of your botanical drawings in this class too!
Leave a Reply