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About the key to the weed species of New Zealand

Species list

Nomenclature used in the weeds key follows the most currently accepted names and taxonomic treatments. These names match those accepted in the Landcare Research Ngā Tipu o Aotearoa – New Zealand Plants databases.

  • Table 1 : Full list of National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) species in the key, notes and comparisons with the 2012 NPPA manual, and close relatives and similar species.
  • Table 2 : Partial list of Environmental Weeds in the key, where the names differ from Howell (2008) .

Table 1: Full list of NPPA species in the key, notes and comparisons with the 2012 NPPA manual, and close relatives and similar species.

 

Table 2: Partial list of Environmental Weeds in the key, where the names differ from Howell (2008)

Images

More than 20,000 high resolution plant images were gathered for this project. Of these, about 11,000 were selected for the final key and file sizes were reduced for fast display.

Images were chosen with a preference for New Zealand material and to represent a range of features for each species, such as:

  • Population
  • Habit
  • Adult plant
  • Seedling
  • Foliage
  • Leaf (upper and lower)
  • Stem
  • Branch
  • Inflorescence
  • Flower
  • Fruit
  • Seed
  • Specialised characters (e.g., spines, tendrils, bark)

Different stages of maturity and close-up photography is included. Most images are of live plants but herbarium specimens and line drawings are also used. The key includes captions for all features and acknowledges the source of each individual image.

All five authors of the weeds key provided images and Trevor James and Sheldon Navie made the greatest contributions. The remaining images were obtained from a wide range of sources and every effort has been made to obtain permission to use them or to ensure that they are copyright free.

However, treat all images in the Weed key as copyright to the original photographer.

Further images are welcome – please contact Murray Dawson for details.

The following is a partial list of those who have kindly contributed images:

Authors of key

New Zealand contributors:

International contributors:

Acknowledgements

Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research acknowledges the financial assistance of the Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (TFBIS) Programme towards the completion of an interactive identification key to weeds and pest plants included in the Department of Conservation consolidated list of environmental weeds in New Zealand (Howell, 2008) , the National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA), and plants that are closely related or similar looking. The TFBIS Programme is funded by the Government to help to achieve the goals of the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy, and is administered by the Department of Conservation.

The Centre for Biological Information Technology (CBIT) at The University of Queensland supplied scores and fact sheet information for some species included in the New Zealand (Lucid™) weeds key. This data was derived from the following Lucid™ keys, authored by Sheldon Navie, and developed and distributed by CBIT - Declared Plants of Australia, Environmental Weeds of Australia and Suburban and Environmental Weeds of SE Queensland - version 2.

In addition to the main authors of the Weed key, many others contributed images. We especially thank:

  • Carolyn Lewis (Weedbusters)
  • Clayson Howell (Department of Conservation)
  • MAF Biosecurity New Zealand
  • NIWA, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research
  • Jonathan Boow (Auckland Regional Council)
  • Other New Zealand regional authorities, city councils and district councils
  • Forest & Kim Starr (Hawaii)
  • Jackie Miles and Max Campbell (NSW, Australia)
  • Contributors to the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database
  • Contributors to Wikimedia

Also see our webpage on further acknowledgements and details of images used in the weeds key.

Useful links relating to weeds.

Ngā Tipu o Aotearoa – New Zealand Plants databases
http://nzflora.landcareresearch.co.nz/

MAF Biosecurity New Zealand
www.biosecurity.govt.nz

Weedbusters
www.weedbusters.co.nz

PestWebNZ
www.pestweb.co.nz

Massey University – New Zealand weeds
http://weeds.massey.ac.nz

The Gymnosperm Database
www.conifers.org

SCION – Interactive key to Cultivated Pines
www.scionresearch.com/keys/Pinus/pine-key.html

Pest Plants (weeds) of NZ on iNaturalist NZ

iNaturalist NZ is a community website, where you can share what you see in nature, meet other nature watchers, and learn about New Zealand animals, plants, and fungi.

iNaturalist NZ