I chose to focus on just one feature present in the four bins. (Thank you, https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/needles-leaves). And that was plenty. It’s a bit of a logic puzzle. It took me a long time to think my way through labelling the choices A/A1—F in the second version I wrote. Still not sure if it flows; I think it does.
I have used dichotomous keys to identify mushrooms. They are definitely easier to use than create.
ps. 21 Types of Hairiness or Fuzziness, a fun list at https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/termlf2.htm helped me with the word “lanate”.
The “F” after “B1. Not linear” should be an “E”. And now that I look at it a little more the letters are a mess. sigh.
Thanks Lucia,
seems like everybody was really keen on showing off their plant ID skills even with the few images and some of them too far for comfort to really see much…
But mostly you got the idea. I just wanted you to explore making a dichotomous key for the four bins and see that everybody would make a slightly different key, which you did, since you went for some of the trichome characters in constructing your key, which others did not, so overall I think this worked well.
When creating a dichotomous keys, remember that each couplet should be parallel, so if you are using two characters in one of the choices the other turn you make in that couplet should have the same numbers of characters…. for example
A. Linear leaves with parallel venation
A’. Palmately-lobed leaves with palmate venation