Talk:Pachypodium key to species
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[edit]This article is supposed to be nested under the wiki: Pachypodium; where I am in the process of (1) adding content AND (II) creating more encyclopedias like entries that make use of subsections and subsubsections. Therefore the resolution of detail and technicality of this page is much higher to the more general wiki. I hope that it is realized that this article does not exist out of a context. ---- Realizing that a lot of people might not be able to use a botanical key, I have taken time to explain how to use it. Does what it explains make sense? Also to make it more readable I have created a "Quick List" of terms used in the keys so that, with explanation, the key will be more readable.
I should say; however, to the best of my knowledge I have maintained a fairly "strict" form of a botanical key with exception that I do not know how to right justify the conditional predicate of each initial couplet. If it were right justified, it would appear more organized and be truer to the form of a botanical key.
The organization of this page is a how botanical keys are constructed. I am comfortable with that format because it is universally more readable to individuals somehow conected with botany as a pre-existing standard form. One could conceivably radically re-organize a Key for the sake of an encycopedia style, but to do so, would distrupt a very standerized form in the process. Hence the problem of making it useful in a general encycopedia manner while retaining its technical exactude. A Quick List of Terms seems to be a perfect "bridge" between the two. Effort paid to the terms will guarartee success with the Botanical Key
Tim Winchester 16:39, May 27, 2005 (UTC)
Again I stand by how this Key is constructed as a proper form of a Botannical Key. It is not a easy read, I admit that with out doubt . . . but I feel that given the scope of the project to account for the genus of Pachypodium, that if a key were not used, then the project would be lacking a "key" aspect. The inclusion of how to use a Key levels the playing field so that any one who understands how to use a key by either instruction (How To Use), Definition (Quick List and Wikified Text), or example (WikiSpecies) will be able to make use of the key. A a very general level the Key allows for Collectors of Pachypodium to distinguish taxa, given some maturity of the plant, and a specifiec level one can define a species by reading the characters of the key that follow to its identification and, therefore, have a specific definition of the species.
Although I am new to Wikipedia, combining this already sizable page with the "Morphology of Pachypodydium" would make it extremely long. I have been reminded repeatedly that section, subections should be short to maintian their readiability. I cleary recognize a relationship between this Key and the article ofn Morphology but what I have been told by other weighs in here in my decision not to combine them.
Tim Winchester 18:38, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)