Computer-Generated Keys and Descriptions of the Flora of Saudi Arabia: A Pilot Study on Some Grasses from Jazan

This is the first use of key-generating computer programs to construct automated keys and descriptions of plants in the flora of Saudi Arabia. The program suit DELTA was used to generate a conventional key to 55 species of Poaceae collected from Jazan region, Saudi Arabia on the basis of a dataset comprising 50 easily observable morphological characters. The same computer run produces two types of automated descriptions for individual species (detailed descriptions in natural language and item descriptions in numbers of characters and character-states). Both types are based on the entirety of the 50 characters recorded for every species to be used in the confirmation of its identity. Automated keys are by far superior to their traditional counterparts. They: (i) are highly flexible and can easily accommodate additional taxa and/or characters, (ii) consistently lead to repeatable results, and (iii) can be turned into interactive keys when uploaded on a website to become globally available. This study was undertaken as a model for other studies aiming at improving floristic studies in Saudi Arabia and the procedure adopted here is equally applicable to all groups of plants in the flora of the country.