Keys From Altitude

This is a view from altitude of Keys to Kruger's Trees, or 'Keys' for short.

Keys is a digital handbook that includes about 550 tree, shrub, succulent and liana species, all found in Kruger National Park.

You will benefit from reading on, to understand the many aspects of Keys that can speed your learning about trees.

Keys is accessed through a website, which requires internet. But internet is not available across most of Kruger Park. For this reason, we intend launching a version of Keys for handheld devices within a year or two.

When driving in Kruger, you may not leave your vehicle to examine a tree in detail. But, with a little knowledge, and perhaps using binoculars, identities of many species can be done from your vehicle.

Keys is cost-free. It is a resource for your learning. Nobody should be hindered by financial constraints in learning about the beauty and value of their indigenous trees.

I encourage you to browse various Keys modules, explained below, to increase your knowledge of the trees and other plants of Kruger. Allow curiosity to free-wheel!

Enter www.krugerstrees.com and you are presented with a full-page image taken from the Keys library of images. The image changes every 60 seconds, so you may leave your screen on to enjoy the passing show. The name of the species shown is given below the image.

In the bottom right-hand corner is a button marked Navigate. Click, and you are presented with the 7 primary modules of Keys.

The Navigate button remains wherever you go in Keys. If, for example, you are in the Species Library, and you wish to jump to the Learning Library, hit Navigate and select Learning Library. It's quick!

Hover on any term or word that has a faint blue underline, and the meaning of that term pops out.

Module 1 – The Species Library

The Species Library gives a page on each of the 550 species covered in Keys. Images predominate on each page. We endeavour to show you images of plant features that are characteristic of each species. A few lines of explanatory text usually accompanies images. We maximise the visual and minimise dense botanical text.

Species Library images illustrate many of the features you will find in Botanical Search (module 2 below).

Module 2 – Botanical Search

Botanical Search enables you enter visible features on the plant, called plant morphology. As each feature is ticked, you generate a new list of species that do have the features you have ticked.

Botanical Search only uses the positive presence of features. You never record the absence of a botanical feature.

Enter Botanical Search, and you are presented with 7 primary clusters of botanical features, such as simple leaves, compound leaves, flowers, fruits etc. Select one of those, and it cascades into more specific detail. Remember that hovering on any underlined word pops up its meaning.

With each tick on a positive occurrence of a botanical feature, a new list of species matching the features you have marked scrolls down on the right-hand side of your screen.

The questions listed in Botanical Search prompt you to observe the tree more closely. The more positive features you tick, the shorter will be the list of species you generate.

For any list of species you have generated, you may transfer the list, or selected species within the list, to the Species Library, and browse through images of those species. This will refine your search, and you may resolve on the identity of the tree you are studying.

Learning and revision are easy with Botanical Search. You, for example, may wish to revise all species with trifoliolate leaves, or all species that produce 4-winged dry fruit. Go to Botanical Search and select the feature or features you wish to revise. Generate a list, transfer it to the Species Library, and start your revision.

Module 3 – Search Using Words or Names

This search engine allows you to enter a botanical or common name of a plant, or a name of a family, or the name of a feature, or a scientific term, and see what the search generates.

Clicking on any result takes you to that occurrence in Keys. The back button takes you back, step by step.

Module 4 – Search using Locations in Kruger

This module offers you 25 names of rest camps and some picnic spots. Clicking on one of several names generates a list of species that are likely to occur in the sub-region of the rest camp. You may, for example, select Satara and Olifants, and generate a list of species likely to be found in the landscapes of those two camps. Species only found in the north or south of the Park are excluded.

If you are going to Berg-en-Dal for a few days break, click on that name, generate the list of likely species. Print that list and take it with you.

But there's a caveat: Trees do not obey distribution maps built by humans. Some species can be found well outside their recorded ranges, and others can be difficult to find in recorded ranges.

Module 5 – The Learning Library

The Learning Library is a fascinating module with many sub-sections. Firstly, if you are not botanically trained, we urge you to take a little time to read Botany Basics. It guides you through plant architecture, including the designs of leaves, flowers, fruits and much more. All this helps you to read the evidence when standing beside a tree.

Related to your learning in Botany Basics, Asking the Right Questions, helps you to build in your mind a framework for gathering clues to tree identity. Haphazard observation is seldom effective. Working quickly through a minimalist evidence-gathering process helps you to build a list of likely species, or to use Botanical Search more effectively.

Toward this end, becoming familiar with all the features in Botanical Search will help you to ask the right questions when standing beside a tree.

Springboard 66 may interest you. It's a starter list. Rather that learning a few species randomly chosen, it may help you to start with 66 tree species that are common. Learn those first.

Select Springboard 66 and the list appears. You may transfer the list, or any species you select, to the Species Library. There, you can browse through images of those species. First on the list is the Baobab, which we all know. So, only 65 to go!

Another Learning Library section is Understanding Plant Vocabulary. You will learn about the terms used to describe features of leaves, flowers and fruits and more. Botanists tend to use their own adapted language, full of terms that are not always understood. Learn some botanical language! It will help you to use Keys more effectively.

Maps, in the Learning Library, can be another useful addition to your learning. Many tree and shrub species have strong preferences for specific soil types and underlying rock types. Many also limit themselves to specific landscape types, from koppies to rocky slopes to woodland, to savanna, to riverine environments and to deep sandveld.

35 Kruger Landscapes is a series of maps delineating landscape types. Wherever you are in Kruger, you can access the type of land you are in. Hover your mouse on a landscape name, and a list of more common tree species likely to be found in that landscape pops up. Quick, valuable information.

Credit goes to Willem Gertenbach in 1983 for his research that defined Kruger's landscapes. Our grateful thanks to copyright holder Braam van Wyk and his team for their generosity in giving Keys to Kruger's Trees access to his map layouts, at no cost.

Soils of Kruger in the Learning Library is another high-value map for tree lovers. Freek Venter, who is a member of the Keys team, travelled the length and breadth of Kruger testing soil types and building this accurate map. Once again, hover on a soil type, and a selection of trees that thrive in that below-ground environment will pop up.

The Glossary in the Learning Library can be browsed for interest and learning. This resource feeds into Search Using Words or Names (Module 3), and, when you hover on an underlined term or word in the text, the meaning will pop up, taken from the glossary.

Understanding Scientific Names is yet another module in the Learning Library. Most people outside of botany struggle to learn scientific names. But to understand the derivations of scientific names brings them to life, and some names spotlight features of the plant in question that add to memory.

Module 6 – Keys People

Keys People gives acknowledgement and credit to the people who have laboured over many years to build the Keys resource.

Module 7 – Register with Keys

You may save lists that you have built of species for access at a later time under Register with Keys. All you need to provide is your e-mail address and your password to access your saved lists. The information you provide will never be shared or used for any commercial purposes.

A Final Word

Identifying trees can be complicated! This is because plants are modular organisms. A tree is like a gathering of many unrelated modules, like leaves, flowers, fruits, bark, spines etc. This mix can send confusing signals about identity.

Mammals, birds and reptiles are a little easier than trees. This is because each species is a unit. It's a unitary organism. We learn to recognise size, shape, colours and other features of a species. Together, these comprise one unit, which becomes easier to recognise.

It is not difficult for a person with no formal training in botany to become a competent tree analyst. We recommend that you spend time in the modules touched on above, such as the Learning Library, Botanical Search and Species Library.

Keys to Kruger's Trees is designed for people who love the bushveld, who are naturally curious, who have a desire to learn, to observe, to deduce from gathered information and to experience the joys of discovery within Kruger's treasure-house of plants.

Finally, sharp observational habits are an asset anywhere in the bushveld, whether looking at animals, birds, grasses, trees, spoor, geology or the starry vault on a clear night. We suggest that you develop patient, penetrating eyes to uncover important keys to a tree's identity.

Our hope is that the Keys resource will bring you enduring pleasure. Be at home among our bushveld trees.

Ted Woods, Eugene Moll, Johna Turner and Freek Venter