Family Guide for Fruits and Seeds J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn and M.J. Dallwitz

The bulk of agricultural commerce is in the form fruits and seeds. Most weeds and invasive species also move around as fruits and seeds. The database accessible here, has 418 families of seed plants, all the families of seed plants recognized by the USDA in December 2003. The following characters are recorded for each family: 17 cone characters, 123 fruit characters, 175 seed characters, and three distribution characters. Also, those families with declared noxious weed species in the U.S.A. are indicated as such, and the species are listed. The data are stored in DELTA format and were converted to a binary format for interactive identification and queries using the INTKEY software program of CSIRO.

Quick links for advanced users: Family descriptions and images Use Internet Identification System Download INTKEY installation file Download database and images   (zip file: families.zip, 134.3 MB) View tutorial

Using morphological and distributional characters, fruits and seeds can be identified to family. The data can also be queried to obtain information about a particular family, a group of families, or the characters used.

The data and images can be used in three ways, over the Internet or locally on your PC.

1. View the family descriptions and images via the Internet.

View the family index

Locate the family of interest on the family index page, and click on the family name to request its description. Below the description, the cone, fruit, seed, and embryo illustrations for that family are displayed as thumbnail images. Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge it.

2. Access the database via the Internet: After utilizing the data, you may save it to your hard disk.

Use the Internet Identification System

To use the Internet Identification System, you must be using a PC running Windows 95/NT or later, and have installed the program INTKEY.

Download the latest INTKEY installation file

The INTKEY installation file download will create the executable file, 'intk32.exe', on your hard drive and will occupy 2.09 MB of storage space. Save the file in any folder, and run it to install INTKEY. The 'intk32.exe' file may then be deleted from your hard drive.

3. Access the database locally: The data, images, and descriptions can be downloaded together as a zip file, families.zip.

Download Zip File (families.zip, 134.3 MB)

After the file is on your hard disk, decompress the file to extract the database and images. To access the data, images, and descriptions, start the INTKEY program of CSIRO. In the first window, 'Select data set', browse to the directory in which the data is stored, pick the file 'intkey.ink', and 'Open' the data set.

Tutorial

A short tutorial provides the following information:

Screen layout and toolbars of INTKEY

How to perform simple identifications and data queries

INTKEY's advanced mode and operating system and hardware requirements

Contacts for the database and INTKEY software

Suggested citation: Kirkbride, J.H., Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2006. Family Guide for Fruits and Seeds, vers. 1.0. URL: http://nt.ars-grin.gov/sbmlweb/OnlineResources/frsdfam/Index.cfm. Accessed January 16, 2009.

Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory
Questions about web site: HerbariumBPI@ars.usda.gov
Page last updated 7 June 2006