XVI International Botanical Congess

Two types of identification key used in systematics are route keys and random-access keys. The two key types are very different logical structures, with the strengths of one often the weaknesses of the other. Route keys are inflexible, and users often face unanswerable couplets. Random-access keys solve these problems, but random access may be a problem as well as a strength, and they cannot handle character contingency, a problem especially at higher taxonomic levels. Random-access keys will not supersede route keys, and there is much potential for hybrid structures that combine the strengths of both approaches and avoid their weaknesses. This talk will demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of random-access keys, and explore potentials for hybrids. The Lucid platform will be used as an example of an effective hybrid random-access key.