WATTLE has been developed through collaborative arrangements between the following agencies:
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Department of Conservation and Land Management, Perth, Western Australia (PERTH) |
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Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ABRS) |
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National Herbarium of New South Wales, Sydney (NSW) |
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CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, Australian Tree Seed Centre, Canberra (ATSC) |
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Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane (BRI) |
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Plant Biodiversity Centre, Adelaide, South Australia (AD) |
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National Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne (MEL) |
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Northern Territory Herbarium, Darwin (DNA) |
WATTLE was supported financially through a Natural Heritage Trust grant (Bushcare Program) from Environment Australia. Ian Cresswell, Director, ABRS, is thanked for his effort in facilitating this grant which was the primary source of external funds for the project.
A project of this size could not have been undertaken without the generous assistance and technical skills of many people. This help has been provided by volunteers, government agencies (State, Territory and Commonwealth) and the private sector, and this assistance is gratefully acknowledged here.
Descriptions
Most of the WATTLE taxon descriptions are reformatted versions of those presented in the Flora of Australia treatment of Acacia (vols. 11A and 11B). Contributing authors’ initials are given in parentheses at the end of each description: ABC – Arthur Court (O'Connor, A.C.T.), ARC – Alex Chapman (PERTH), ASG – Alex George (Kardinya, W.A.), BJC – Barry Conn (N.S.W), BRM – Bruce Maslin (PERTH), GH – Gwen Harden (N.S.W), GJL – Greg Leach (Darwin, N.T.), JW – John Williams (Armidale, N.S.W.), JHR – Jim Ross (MEL), LP – Les Pedley (BRI), MAL – Margaret Lewington (PERTH), MDT – Mary Tindale (N.S.W), M'OL – Martin O'Leary (AD), MWM – Maurice McDonald (ATSC), N.S.W – various herb. N.S.W authors, PGK – Phillip Kodela (N.S.W), RSC – Richard Cowan (deceased), TMT – Terry Tame (Newcastle, N.S.W.)
Images
Most of the annotated taxon illustrations were drawn by Margaret Pieroni (Attadale, W.A.) but some were prepared by other artists. The artists' names are shown on each illustration. We are most grateful to these illustrators for providing this exquisite artwork, the majority of which was originally prepared for inclusion in the Flora of Australia treatment of Acacia. However, a few illustrations were done for other purposes, often specifically for WATTLE, and we therefore thank Will Smith (BRI), Gilbert Dashorst (AD), Terry Tame (Newcastle, N.S.W.) and David Mackay (Armidale, N.S.W.) for providing these illustrations. Annette Wilson (ABRS) is thanked for organising the scanning of Flora illustrations for use in WATTLE. Michael Hughes (Mt Hawthorne, W.A.) and especially Veronica Maslin (South Perth, W.A.) assembled and labelled most of the taxon images and their fine efforts are gratefully acknowledged.
The diagrammatic character images were designed and prepared by Milton Andrews (Square Peg Design, W.A.), supplemented by some Margaret Pieroni illustrations. Brendon Smith (Envision, Perth, W.A.) is thanked for technical advice in the preparation of the photographic character images. The prickles illustration was taken from J. Ross (1979), A Conspectus of the African Acacia Species (Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 44).
We are most grateful to Marion Simmons (Legana, Tas.) and Grace Lithgow (Chinchilla, Qld) for making their artwork available for use as supplementary taxon illustrations. John Simmons assisted Marion to scan approximately 450 of her original line drawings for use in WATTLE; about 150 of these drawings have not been published previously.
Data
The basic WATTLE character list was prepared many years ago, as a collaborative project between Bruce Maslin (PERTH) and Greg Leach (Darwin, N.T.).
We are very appreciative of the specialist taxonomic advice received concerning some of the taxa. In particular, Les Pedley (BRI) is gratefully acknowledged in this regard and for generously providing copies of unpublished manuscripts so that the information could be presented in WATTLE. Bill Molyneux (Melbourne, Vic.) and John Williams (Armidale, N.S.W.) also provided information enabling their unpublished taxa to be included in WATTLE.
The Lucid Development team, especially Mathew Taylor (Brisbane, Qld), also provided valuable software advice and support.
We extend our thanks to the many people across the country who have collected specimens and provided other information essential to the taxonomic work that underpins both WATTLE and the Flora of Australia projects.
Thanks are also extended to CALM volunteers at PERTH, Chris Hollister, Bill Coad and especially Stan Webster, for their extensive testing of the key and for providing other technical support to the project. Ian Cowie (DNA) and David Albrecht (herb. NT) are also thanked for testing the key and for providing descriptive information on many Northern Territory taxa.
Descriptive information for the taxa was coded using the DELTA program and interrogated with INTKEY (Dallwitz 1980; Dallwitz, Paine & Zurcher 1993 onwards; Dallwitz, Paine & Zurcher 1995 onwards; Dallwitz, Paine & Zurcher 1998) The information was then transferred to LucID (via the LucID Translator) where taxon and character images and descriptions were assembled for presentation as WATTLE. Karina Knight (PERTH) and Terena Lally (CANB) are thanked for assistance in helping code the descriptive data.
Publication
Andrea Jordan (Publisher), Neil Simpson (Designer), and other staff at CSIRO Publishing, are thanked for facilitating the design of the WATTLE interface and associated links.
The WATTLE User Guide was based to a large extent on the guides provided in two recently published LucID products, namely, EUCLID, Eucalypts of south-eastern Australia (revised edition) by Brooker, Connors and Slee (2000) and The Families of Flowering Plants of Australia by Thiele and Adams (1999). CSIRO and ABRS are thanked for allowing us to abstract freely from these guides in compiling the one presented here.
Very considerable editorial and other assistance was provided by ABRS staff Tony Orchard, Annette Wilson, Cheryl Grgurinovic, Jane Mowatt and Helen Thompson.
We wish to thank John Connors, Andrew Slee and Kirsten Cowley (Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian National Herbarium, CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra) for refereeing WATTLE.
Miscellaneous
Many other people have provided assistance, advice and support essential to the project. In particular we wish to thank Laurie Jessup (BRI), Clyde Dunlop (DNA), Jim Ross (MEL), Barry Conn (N.S.W), John Clarkson (Mareeba, Qld) and Paul Wilson (PERTH).
Thanks are extended also to Neil Burrows (Director, CALMScience Division, Perth) for his encouragement and support of the WATTLE project.
References
Brooker, M.I.H., Connors, J.R. and Slee, A.V. (2000). EUCLID, Eucalypts of south-eastern Australia (revised edition). (CSIRO: Melbourne.)
Dallwitz, M.J. (1980). A general system for coding taxonomic descriptions. Taxon 29, 41–6.
Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A., and Zurcher, E.J. (1993 onwards). ‘User’s Guide to the DELTA System: a General System for Processing Taxonomic Descriptions.’ 4th edition. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/
Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A., and Zurcher, E.J. (1995 onwards). ‘User’s Guide to Intkey: a Program for Interactive Identification and Information Retrieval.’ 1st edition. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/
Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A., and Zurcher, E.J. (1998). Interactive keys. In P. Bridge, P. Jeffries, D. R. Morse & P. R. Scott (eds) ‘Information Technology, Plant Pathology and Biodiversity’, pp. 201–212 (CAB International: Wallingford.)
Ross, J. (1979). Conspectus of Acacia. Mem. Bot. Survey S. Africa 44: 1-155.
Thiele, K.R. and Adams, L.G. (1999).The Families of Flowering Plants of Australia: An Interactive Identification Guide. (ABRS: Canberra.
