Basic description of two taxa

SDD Challenge Cases

The challenge cases below represent specific classes of problems that the SDD Standard needs to address. The exemplar for each case provides a chunk or fragment of descriptive data that minimally exemplifies the problem; the challenge is to validly represent the data under the evolving standard. The challenges are listed in the approximate order in which they will be worked through.

Challenge 1: Represent basic descriptions of two taxa from one (natural language) source

Exemplar:

Discaria pubescens

Rigid, spreading shrub to c. 1m high and wide; stems glabrous. Leaves soon deciduous (particularly on older plants), +/- oblong, (4-)6-10(-15) mm long, 2-3 mm wide, apex obtuse or minutely mucronate within an apical notch, glabrous or a few hairs present near tip; stipules dark reddish-brown, c. 1 mm long, often shallowly joined around the node; spines stout, 1.5-4 cm long

Discaria nitida

Slender shrub, to 5 m high; stems glabrous. Leaves persistent (rarely deciduous), elliptic to obovate, (8-)10-20(-30) mm long, 3-7 mm wide, glabrous, shining; spines not developed at each node, to c. 1 cm long.

Issues:

missing data (e.g. stipule characters for D. nitida)
modifiers (e.g. leaves of D. nitida rarely deciduous)
freeform comments (e.g. D. pubescens "particularly on older plants")
structured data vs marked-up text (e.g. let's say that stipule arrangement will not be a character - how to retain the data "stipules often shallowly joined around the node")

2. Basic description of one taxon, two sources, basic markup

referencing
ascription

3. One treatment, several contributing authors

flagging of data
ownership
maintenance
privileges

4. Define basic character list

structure of character lists
character types

5. Remote vs local character list

lexicons

6. Remote vs local taxon lists

master lists

7. Several descriptions at different levels (e.g. family (genus (species (specimens))))

nesting of taxon(/character?) lists
data collation
data inheritance

8. Universal treatment, several outputs (natural language, NEXUS, interactive key)

flagging/layering of data elements