iNaturalist is missing many plant names used in the Flora of China. That seems a sufficiently authoritative source. Why not import all the names from there that iNaturalist doesn’t already have?
I know individual species will be added by curators when I run across a problem and ask, but it seems this is an issue that could be best addressed wholesale.
Following as I’m adding names on Malaysia Check List one by one. However I understand names might not be iNat’s priority, observations/identifications are.
Unless there is evidence of a need for every plant species found in China to be added, in that it will be used for submitting observations, I’m not sure there is great value in adding thousands of records that will be never used.
And why limit it to China, where site use is extremely low, why not add all species from elsewhere ? Or from other families of life other than plants ?
As was stated above, the site is not designed as a taxonomy database or reference site.
I depends how old the respective volumes of Flora of China are and if in the meanwhile revisions that could have changed the taxonomy have been published.
Anyway, yes, FOC is an authoritative source.
Also keep in mind that any and all plant names added need to be in the context of POWO, per current site guidelines. So any of the Flora of China names that deviate from POWO would need some discussion first, which would be a roadblock to any mass import, unless you would be willing to have them go straight into synonymy with their POWO equivalents.
As others mentioned, iNat’s taxonomy has been built only as demand required. That said, if there were a particular group (genus or even small family) for which you anticipated new observations being added, you could always request those kinds of “batches” for curatorial attention. Or, consider joining the curatorial crew and helping out!
Happy to see the topic here! l am a chinese and l come from hongkong. Chinese flora is very complex and varied so we’ve got a book for it: Flora of China (it is series) .Here is a brief introduction : https://docsbay.net/flora-of-china-series
As for the book, you guys need to go to libraryies or bookstores .
I use Flora of China on-line.
Would that be this web site?
Yes, that’s Flora of China.
I have the same problem for Vietnam. Many accepted and long-standing species names are unrecognized by iNat.
Not having the species recognized by iNat means that observations of those species wind up being stuck in a limbo of genus level at best in many cases. Sometimes they get stuck at family level, even if we all know what the specific species is.
This is a difficulty for those of us working in the relevant areas as it means that being able to use iNat as a conservation tool and a species presence record tool is severely curtailed.
For the average user it’s not an issue, but for those of us with a professional need for accuracy it poses a challenge.
iNat is used in different ways and for different purposes by different people. It’s one of the challenges that the platform faces. Personally, I’d love for a comprehensive list of all species everywhere to be automatically added. The “add as needed” is clumsy. I see why it’s done that way, the sheer amount of work needed to comprehensively add and fact-check names for all the potential additions would be immense, but I think that it would have correspondingly large benefits.
As mentioned in this reply in another topic, there are processes for requesting additions to the iNaturalist taxonomy. On any taxon, the “Curation” dropdown will include a “Flag for Curation” option. No need for anything to be stuck in limbo, but sometimes there are delays while the curator crew catches up with and vets requests.
Meanwhile, I recommend that in addition to a Genus or Family ID, you include the specific ID name in the observation description or in a comment on the observation. That way, when the name becomes available for use in iNaturalist, you will be able to search for observations with text containing that name, and update the IDs.
Generally that’s what I do, also for providing IDs for observations in an area I know that are not recognized by iNat, or for observation IDs that I’m not confident enough to suggest an official ID for.
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