Abstract
Sustainable management and conservation of tropical trees and forests require accurate identification of tree species. Reliable, user-friendly identification tools based on macroscopic morphological features have already been developed for various tree floras. Wood anatomical features provide also a considerable amount of information that can be used for timber traceability, certification and trade control. Yet, this information is still poorly used, and only a handful of experts are able to use it for plant species identification. Here, we present an interactive, user-friendly tool based on vector graphics, illustrating 99 states of 27 wood characters from 110 Amazonian tree species belonging to 34 families. Pl@ntWood is a graphical identification tool based on the IDAO system, a multimedia approach to plant identification. Wood anatomical characters were selected from the IAWA list of microscopic features for hardwood identification, which will enable us to easily extend this work to a larger number of species. A stand-alone application has been developed and an on-line version will be delivered in the near future. Besides allowing non-specialists to identify plants in a user-friendly interface, this system can be used with different purposes such as teaching, conservation, management, and self-training in the wood anatomy of tropical species.