The Weeds of Australian Cotton key is a tool for Australian cotton growers and their advisors, designed to assist in identifying 50 key weed species. Individuals outside of the cotton industry may also find benefits in using the tool for weed ID.

Weed identification in early growth stages is of critical importance for best weed management practices, as similar-looking species often have quite different control requirements, and waiting for diagnostic features like flowers and fruits to appear means the optimal window for herbicide applications has long passed. For this reason, the Weeds of Australian Cotton key includes cotyledon shapes as an important diagnostic character. All key characteristics can be assessed with the naked eye or a hand lens.

It is important to note that weeds not included in the key could be present in cotton fields, and misidentification is possible. Confirming identification with an expert is advised, especially if the weed is proving hard to kill.

The key is illustrated with hundreds of images to assist in identification. The splash screen image was provided by Melanie Jenson. Other images in the key were taken by Graham Charles and Sheldon Navie, unless otherwise stated.

The text for the tool was partly provided from contributions to WeedPak written by Graham Charles, Stephen Johnson and Jeff Werth, and supplied by the Australian Cotton Research and Development Corporation. Some of the text also forms part of the Environmental Weeds of Australia key, written by Sheldon Navie. These resources were compiled and edited by David Thornby.

Support for the creation of the Weeds of Australian Cotton tool was provided by the Australian Cotton Research and Development Corporation as part of project UQ1501.

This app was created using the Lucid Mobile platform, part of the Lucid suite of tools. If you are interested in creating a similar app, or for further information on creating interactive keys, please visit http://www.lucidcentral.org