Interactive Key to the Grasses of Columbia Basin

Entering too many characters at the beginning.
Each extra character entered increases the possibility of making a mistake or entering a number that is outside the range of the recorded data. Our experience shows that specimens not infrequently fall outside of the range in written descriptions. We have used, to the extent possible, real field specimens, not only herbarium specimens, to establish the size ranges used in this key. If you find a speciment which exhibits parts outside the size or number range in our key and you are reasonably confident that you have a correct identification, we would like to hear from you to continually improve the data quality.
A good search strategy is to query the database using only a few characters, looking at the illustrations for the grasses that come up, and gradually adding more characters.

Entering the wrong units, a number in the wrong field, or the wrong choice from a drop-down menu.
Height and flowerhead length are in centimetres. All other measurements are in millimetres.
Make sure you enter the right number in the right box. Many times, we've entered the ligule length in the blade width field or something similar.
Drop-down menus can be sensitive to your mouse movement and you may have inadvertently searched on the wrong value.
If you get no answer, or an answer that is clearly wrong when compared to your grass specimen, double check that the fields are filled in as you intended.
Measuring small features is more prone to error than measuring larger ones.
Use a hand lens when measuring features less than 2 mm.

Misinterpreting characters.
Beginners often have trouble with distinguishing florets, spikelets lemmas and glumes.
Counting the number of florets per spikelet can be tricky for very small spikelets (such as in Agrostis) or where florets have started to drop.
The relative length of the lower glume compared to the first floret can be tricky to discern. Use this character only if the glume is clearly longer or clearly shorter than the first floret.

	Interactive Key to the Grasses of the Columbia Basin
	Introduction \| Contents \| Illustrated Key \| Extended Key \| Grass Checklist \| Help \| Glossary

	HELP
	Illustrated help - a step-by-step guide Hints Site map and search process Sample Identification of a mystery grass to try Common difficulties encountered using the keys List of grass characters	Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Which key should you use? Why do the illustrations change on the illustrated key? How do you know if you have correctly identified your grass? What do you do when you don't get a result? Where do the data come from? What grasses are included in the database? Can I contribute data? Contact information


	Site Map and Search Process: A typical search involves a number of steps, going back and forth between web pages until the grass identification is confirmed. The following map can guide you through the maze.


	Top of Page Here is an example of a search for you to try: The mystery grass is 45 cm tall, with a distinctly reddish flowerhead 10 cm long. A close look at several florets shows 2 and sometimes 3 florets in each. The awns are about 5 mm long. Using the illustrated key, you can fill in 45 for height, 10 for flowerhead length, 2 for the number of florets, and 5 for the length of the awn. There is no place to enter the obvious reddish colour, but it should be kept in mind for confirming your identification. Searching only on these 4 criteria results in 6 grass candidates. At this point there are several options available: You could click on the 'illustrate' button brings up 6 corresponding illustrations. Several of the grasses (such as Deschampsia danthonoides) do not look at all like your specimen. Going back to you search result page, you could eliminate the grasses that are clearly not like yours by unchecking the relevant checkboxes. You could then use the describe button to bring up a table showing the various characters for the checked grasses. If you now click on the link to show only differences, the table shows only features that are different. You could use the back button on your browser to go back your original search, change the 2 florets per spikelet to 3. This brings up 8 candidate grasses, 4 of which overlap with your original 6 candidates. You could go back to the starting page and enter more information. If you enter 1.5 for the ligule length, only 2 or 3 grass candidates are found (depending on whether you have 2 or 3 florets per spikelet). Look again at the side-by-side descriptions (the 'describe' button), and compare the various features. Based on the characteristics of this specimen, and carefully matching them to the relevant description, we can conclude that this grass is Trisetum spicatum.

	Top of Page Common difficulties encountered using the key for the first time: Entering too many characters at the beginning. Each extra character entered increases the possibility of making a mistake or entering a number that is outside the range of the recorded data. Our experience shows that specimens not infrequently fall outside of the range in written descriptions. We have used, to the extent possible, real field specimens, not only herbarium specimens, to establish the size ranges used in this key. If you find a speciment which exhibits parts outside the size or number range in our key and you are reasonably confident that you have a correct identification, we would like to hear from you to continually improve the data quality. A good search strategy is to query the database using only a few characters, looking at the illustrations for the grasses that come up, and gradually adding more characters. Entering the wrong units, a number in the wrong field, or the wrong choice from a drop-down menu. Height and flowerhead length are in centimetres. All other measurements are in millimetres. Make sure you enter the right number in the right box. Many times, we've entered the ligule length in the blade width field or something similar. Drop-down menus can be sensitive to your mouse movement and you may have inadvertently searched on the wrong value. If you get no answer, or an answer that is clearly wrong when compared to your grass specimen, double check that the fields are filled in as you intended. Measuring small features is more prone to error than measuring larger ones. Use a hand lens when measuring features less than 2 mm. Misinterpreting characters. Beginners often have trouble with distinguishing florets, spikelets lemmas and glumes. Counting the number of florets per spikelet can be tricky for very small spikelets (such as in Agrostis) or where florets have started to drop. The relative length of the lower glume compared to the first floret can be tricky to discern. Use this character only if the glume is clearly longer or clearly shorter than the first floret.


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