Recently I’ve had a few observations flagged with “arrived in the region via anthropogenic means” but also see lots of other observations with out this flag. It seems to stop research grade. My question is how recently does this introduction have to have occurred to deserve a flag? For example 4 out of 6 chickweeds listed in Flora of Virginia arrived after European settlement. Viewing Cerastium in Virginia not all introduced species are flagged.
Does this tag prevent our noticing the spread of introduced species since it seems to prevent research grade designation?
Observations can’t be flagged as introduced, rather the taxon can be set to introduced in a particular area. Not everything that is introduced is currently marked that way, so if you notice something that should be marked, you can change it. Likewise, occasionally something gets marked introduced when it shouldn’t be.
Observations of introduced taxa can get to Research Grade just like any other observations – they need community agreement on the ID, a date, a location, etc. Here’s one of yours at research grade:
It’s really helpful to provide URLs of specific examples that the community can take a look at. There are many reasons an observation might not attain research grade, or there could be a bug in the system.
It could just be that you observe plants more. Here in New Zealand, many ornamental garden plants are introduced, so it follows that an observation of a garden or street plant will show both “Introduced” and “Casual”, the later being due to it being cultivated rather than wild. It’s largely a coincidence thing. Photos of insects, for instance, are more likely to show “Introduced” and “Research Grade” because they are are typically wild rather than captive, and the general public are more likely to notice colourful or unusual introduced species, our native ones are typically drab/cryptic and prefer bush/forest environment.
