The interactive key in FunKey operates under the Lucid interactive identification and information software. Full on-line help is available for all Lucid operations and functions through the Help option of the key itself, which is accessed via the question mark in the blue circle on the toolbar. The following instructions cover the commonly used steps in identifying an unknown agaric specimen.

Once you are familiar with the basic operation of FunKey, visit the Tutorial and see the step-wise process of some sample identifications. There is also information on Best practice in identifying with FunKey and advice on setting up a FunKey Super Session, which makes use of a variety of features of the Lucid interactive key for accurate identification.

Each time you open the interactive key you will see a window divided into four panels, along with a menu bar and toolbar at the top of the screen.

The menu provides options under the headings: Key, Features, Entities and View. The toolbar has buttons for commonly used functions such as Restart Key and Best (all functions are also available through the menu).

The four panels display four lists:

To show all available characters (called features in Lucid) and their states, select the Features Available panel (the one on the top-left) by clicking the heading or anywhere within the panel. Then, click on the Expand selected list button from the toolbar (third button from the left). This may take some time to load. A thumbnail image is provided for each state. These thumbnails can be switched off and on using the Feature Thumbnails button from the toolbar (seventh button from the left).

At any time, you can change the size of the four panels by dragging their inside edges. It is a good idea to make the Features Available panel wider, so that more state thumbnails are visible within it.

Your aim is to ‘describe’ to the key the material of the unidentified agaric (called a ‘specimen’) you have before you. As your description becomes more and more complete the key will progressively narrow down the list in Entities Remaining. The aim is to reduce the number of possible taxa in the top-right panel to one or a few. This will allow you to identify (in other words, name) the taxon to which your specimen belongs.

FunKey includes a wealth of information on a large range of characters, including microscopic characters. If you are a beginner or do not have access to a microscope, it will still be possible to identify many specimens correctly to genus, or at least to a reasonably small group of genera. Comparison of your material against the illustrations provided, or those in the references cited, may then allow identification to a particular genus.

You describe your specimen to the interactive key by selecting one or more character states of the particular character that you are considering. A character is a broad feature of your specimen, such as the Pileus overall shape or the Pileus diameter (mm). A character state is a particular variant of a character, for example rounded is a state of the character Pileus overall shape and the actual diameter of the pileus is a state of the character Pileus diameter (mm). In the Lucid key window all of the characters utilised and their character states are listed within the Features Available panel.

There are two basic types of characters, multistate characters and numeric characters. Multistate characters have two or more states, such as for Pileus surface viscidity, which has three states (a) dry or moist, (b) viscid, and (c) glutinous. Numeric characters are for measurements, such as the diameter of the pileus.

To select a state of a multistate character, click on the thumbnail image. Once selected, a black line appears around the thumbnail image. If you have switched off the display of character state thumbnails (with the Feature Thumbnails button), to select a state, click in the small check box immediately to the left of the name of the state.

As you select character states, your selections will be appear in the Features Chosen panel. When states are selected, they do not disappear from the Features Available panel, but chosen states are duplicated in the Features Chosen panel.

As you answer questions (by selecting character states), you will notice that some taxa – those with character-states that do not match your answer – will be moved from Entities Remaining into Entities Discarded. As you answer more questions the list in Entities Remaining will get shorter until, perhaps, only one taxon remains.

It is quite OK to select more than one state for a particular character. You should do this if there is variation in a character, such as when your specimens have a Pileus colour that varies from yellow to orange. You can also select more than one state if your material is intermediate between two states, such as for a Pileus colour that is blue-green, at the boundary of blue and green. However, if you are unsure about which state/s of a character to choose, leave that character and move on to another.

Numeric characters have a rectangular box to the left of the character name (and this is the same whether the Feature thumbnails are switched on or off). Click once in this box and a dialogue box will pop up into which you can type the measurement/s of your specimen.

You can enter either a single number or a numeric range (with the two numbers separated by a hyphen). In FunKey all macroscopic measurements are in millimetres (mm) and all microscopic measurement are in micrometres (µm), but you do not need to type ‘mm’ or ‘µm’ into the box when you enter your measurements. The range allowable for the character is given in the box (such as 1 to 480 for Pileus diameter).

Tip. When using numeric characters, we recommend entering the midpoint of the observed range.

Thus, if the range is 20-60 mm, enter the value 40. Alternatively you can enter the full rage (such as 20-60), but this will tend to retain more taxa, since taxa that overlap even slightly with the range entered will be retained. Entering only the smallest or largest value is not recommended because exceptional individuals can lie be outside the coded range for a taxon. This is due to the fact that agarics can vary considerably in size according to nutrient availability or weather conditions around the time of fruit-body production, and also because available data on microscopic measurements such as spore size is often based on a relatively small sample.

Measure accurately, especially if the structure is small (less than 5 mm or 5 µm). An error of even 1 mm can cause the ‘right’ answer to be dropped from Entities Remaining.

Characters in the Features Available panel are arranged under three major headings (Macroscopic Characters, Habitat, Ecology & Distribution and Microscopic Characters) and by further subheadings, such as Spore Print, Pileus, Lamellae, Stipe, and so on.

You can show or hide characters under the headings by clicking on the + and – boxes to the left of the headings. Character states can also be shown or hidden by clicking on the + and – boxes to the left of the character names. If some characters or states have been collapsed, you can show all characters and character states by using the Expand selected list button on the toolbar.

Be aware that when viewing the characters in the Features Available panel as a tree, with all the headings and characters expanded, and with the thumbnails visible, some character names appear in the panel distant from their heading. So, Lamellae edge colour shows as Edge colour, and you need to scroll higher up the Features Available panel to see the heading Lamellae. The character being referred to will usually be obvious from the thumbnail, but for some microscopic characters, such as cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia, the names of shape characters (and their thumbnails) will be the same within each character. Viewing the Features Available as a List rather than a Tree (chosen through the tabs in the bottom-left of the Lucid Player window) means that the name of each character is provided in full (such as Lamellae edge colour).

Characters and groups of characters are listed under headings and subheadings, in the following order:

If you choose a character state so that it becomes one of your Features Chosen, then later decide that you were mistaken, you can readily reverse this choice. Simply find the state in the Features Available panel and click in the box to the left of the state name so that the tick disappears. If thumbnails are in view, click on the thumbnail, in which case the black box around the thumbnail disappears. If you have trouble finding states that you have selected, don’t forget that the selected states are all in the Features Chosen panel, with the most recently selected state at the top of the panel. You can deselect a state in either the Features Available panel or the Features Chosen panel. When you deselect a character state, the thumbnail in the Features Chosen panel fades to grey.

If you deselect a character state, some taxa may move back into Entities Remaining as a result.

As you work through the list of Features Available, you might find some characters or character states that you do not understand. When character state thumbnails are in view, the fact sheet icon (the small page) is in the lower right-hand corner of each thumbnail. Clicking on this icon will open the fact sheet for that character state. Each thumbnail also has an arrow icon that will open the full, larger image in a separate window, and this image will often show greater detail or labelling of characters.

The character state fact sheets contain a detailed explanation of both the character and the particular state, along with a diagram of the character state. The fact sheets open in a window that allows you to move to the next or previous character state from the entire list of characters and character states (using the double green arrows on the toolbar).

Tip. The correct interpretation of characters and states is essential to performing a successful identification. Therefore, have a good look at the fact sheets for each character state. There is also a consolidated Introduction to characters which is essential reading for beginners.

When you first start FunKey, 99 characters will be listed in the Features Available panel. You don’t have to answer all the questions, and it doesn't matter what order you answer them in. If you don't think any of the options fits your specimen, skip the question. Under normal circumstances it is advisable to answer as many of the questions as you can because this will most quickly reduce the list in Entities Remaining. Answering more questions also gives greater confidence in the identification arrived at. It is best to answer questions that relate to characters distinctly visible on your specimen and characters that you have a good understanding of. If you run out of questions, you might want to come back to the ones you skipped. As you gain knowledge of agarics, you will become more familiar with key diagnostic characters that are usually required for identification, such as Spore print colour and Lamellae attachment.

Tip. A judicious selection of characters will help you get to the right answer faster. See also: Let FunKey suggest the best characters

Some characters are dependent on the particular choice of character state for another character. Dependent characters are treated in two ways: positive or negative.

Characters that are negatively dependent are removed once the controlling character state is chosen. For example, various characters of the stipe, such as Surface texture and Partial veil remains, are only relevant if a stipe is present. For these characters, once you indicate that a stipe is absent, the dependent characters disappear from the list of Features Available.

Characters that are positively dependent are initially hidden, and only show up in the list of Features Available once the controlling character state is chosen. For example, for Cheilocystidia, Pleurocystidia, Caulocystidia and Pileocystidia, each of the characters Shape, Apex shape and Branching do not show up unless present has been chosen for the particular type of cystidium.

Some characters are not scoped (i.e. not scored at all) for certain taxa, because they are not useful for identification among those taxa. Such characters only show up when all entities remaining are scored for the character. Examples are Chrysocystidia, only scored for taxa with Spore print colour that is not white or pale; and Lamellar trama dextrinoid, only scored for taxa where the Spore print colour is white or pale.

Because some characters are not scoped, and others have positive dependencies, only 99 of the total 115 characters are shown on start up. Similarly if subsets are chosen, not all characters are necessarily shown at the start of an identification session.

At any time, you can access fact sheets on all character states from the list of Character Fact Sheets, even if the particular character is not displaying in the Features Available panel.

FunKey presents the option of using subsets of characters. There are seven subsets, each with a selection of characters that is designed to be used in particular circumstances, or to match your level of knowledge about characters (such as when you do not have access to a compound microscope). Choosing an appropriate subset will make Features Available easier to scan by removing unwanted characters.

You can access the list of subsets by clicking on the Subsets button located on the tool bar. To select a particular character subset, clear the subsets by clicking in the All Features checkbox, and then choose the subset you would like to use by clicking in the appropriate checkbox next to the name of the subset. You can load two or more sets simultaneously by choosing more than one box. Click the OK button and the characters contained in the subset(s) you have selected will appear in the Features Available panel.

When you first start FunKey you will be presented with the full set of characters. You can change to a subset of characters at any stage during an identification session (or back to the full set). Note that due to Dependent and not scoped characters, not all characters are visible at the start of an identification session. For the full set, 99 of the 115 characters are visible initially, and similarly for some subsets, not all characters are visible at first.

If you find that you are consistently using a particular subset of characters, you can retain this subset each time you restart the key by choosing Keep Subsets on Restart in the Key menu. However, once you have exited FunKey, you will need to select the relevant subset the next time you run FunKey.

The following subsets of the full set of characters are available to you in FunKey:

Tip. When using FunKey it is good practice to load the Fast All Characters subset, then answer as many questions as you can from this subset. If there is more than one taxon in the Entities Remaining panel, select All Features from the subsets window and run Best on these characters. See FunKey Super Session for more information on optimising your identification session.

FunKey includes two useful features emphasising those questions that will lead to the most accurate identification. These features are activated by the Best or Shortcuts buttons on the tool bar.

Click on the Best button in the toolbar (the magic wand icon, tenth button from the left) and all characters in Features Available will be analysed to find those that, if you choose one of their states, will give you the shortest list in Entities Remaining. If you can, answer one of these Best characters. When you use Best, FunKey will either sort the characters, placing those with the strongest discriminating power at the top of the list (Sort Best), or find (and highlight) the next best character to use (Find Best). You can decide which of these options you require by clicking on Features then Best Mode located on the menu bar, and choosing Find Best or Sort Best. You can also set the key to automatically sort characters so that the most discriminatory characters are at the top of the Features Available panel, by choosing Auto Best under Automate in the Features menu. To activate Auto Best you need to view the characters as a list (rather than a tree).

You do not have to use the character that is selected as best by FunKey. If using Sort Best look down the list until you find a character you can answer, similarly, if using Find Best click on the Next Best and Previous Best buttons to move forward and backwards through the suggested characters until a suitable character is highlighted.

Click on the Shortcuts button and a window appears in which character states are listed that, if selected, will provide an immediate identification to a single taxon. In the shortcuts window, choose character states with the checkboxes (not by clicking on the thumbnails).

If you wish to restart the key in order to make a new identification then click the Restart Key button (first on the toolbar) and this will clear both the Features Chosen and Entities Discarded panels. Each time you restart the key, the full set of characters is presented in the Features Available panel (99 of the 115 characters visible initially). If you have been using a subset of characters, and would like to continue using it for the following identification session, then choose Keep Subsets on Restart in the Key menu.

In FunKey, getting a name for your specimen is only part of the experience. Once you have a name, you can find out more about the taxon from fact sheets and images. The latter are mostly photographs of fruit-bodies, with photographs of spores and other microcharacters included for some genera. Access images by clicking on the image thumbnail to the left of the taxon name. Images open at full size within a new window. You can move to the next image of the taxon with the single green arrow, or view all images with the Image Thumbnails button (second last on the image window toolbar). You can also move to images of other taxa that are in the Entities Remaining panel with the double green arrows.

Fact sheets for each taxon are accessed by clicking on the small page icon preceding the taxon name. Each contains a brief description of diagnostic characters, a comparison with similar taxa, a list of Australian species in the genus (or subdivision of a genus), notes on diagnostic characters and similar genera, distribution, ecology, and a list of references. Fact sheets also include one or more illustrations. To view any of the thumbnail photographs at larger size, move the cursor over the image and it will appear in main image space. Use the double green arrows in the toolbar at the top of the fact sheet window to move to fact sheets for other taxa that are within the Entities Remaining panel. An index to Taxon fact sheets is available.

The images under each taxon depict a selection of the species occurring in Australia. If your specimen does not exactly match any of the illustrated species for a particular genus, it may still belong there, especially if it is an undescribed species. For further illustrations see the list of references provided on each taxon fact sheet.

If you have answered all the obvious questions about your specimen, but there are still a few taxa remaining, you can:

Additional features of Lucid can help to make the most of the FunKey interactive key. As you become more familiar with Lucid and FunKey, try using some of the other Lucid functions, such as Prune Redundants, Sorting Mode, Why Discarded and others, all of which can be accessed via menu buttons.

The Helpoption in the interactive key provides access to full on-line help for all Lucid operations and functions. Access Help via the question mark in the blue circle on the toolbar.

A taxon (plural taxa) is a unit in a biological classification. For example, a taxon can be a family, a genus or a species. When talking about species, both the genus and species name are provided (as in the taxon name Agaricus xanthodermus). FunKey is an identification guide to the genera of Australian agarics, but for ease of identification some individual species are also included in the key (especially where there is only one known Australian representative of the genus), and some genera are divided into two or more Identification units. The taxa (entities) that are keyed out are a combination of genera, subdivisions of genera, species groups and species.

Where a genus is divided into several identification units, the designation ‘other’ is used for the main part of the genus, apart from the units that are split off. For example, Amanita includes two units: Amanita (no volva) (to cover the few species that lack a volva) and Amanita (other) (for the rest of the species in the genus).

Where there is more than one identification unit within a genus, there is a capitalised index entry in the Entities Remaining panel for the genus, as in AMANITA: index. Thus, among the 185 entities initially included in the Entities Remaining panel, there are 26 genus index entries along with the 159 taxa (genera, subunits of genera, species groups or species). The genus index entries are merely dummy headings, although they do each link to a concise index page for the genus as a whole. The genus index entries are included when entities are viewed as trees or lists. In tree view, identification units within genera are grouped together under the relevant genus index entry.

The 26 genus index entries do not key out. Genus index entries are moved to the Entities Discarded panel as soon as any characters are selected; although, in addition, they remain (greyed out) where any of their constituent identification units are still in the Entities Remaining panel.

Web pages such as the taxon and character state fact sheets attached to items in FunKey may be considered pop-ups by certain browsers (such as Internet Explorer) when clicked on by users. If your browser blocks these fact sheets as pop-ups, change your browser’s internet settings to allow access.

Furthermore, Internet Explorer may block ‘active content’ on web pages or interactive keys. To allow active content in Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, Advanced tab, Security category, and check the box next to the setting: ‘Allow active content to run in files on My Computer’.