I started posting observations to iNaturalist yesterday, including an observation of a Liquidambar tree growing in a backyard: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/111340408 The tree grew where it was on its own, presumably from a seed dropped by the neighbor’s tree that is just on the other s…

Hi Jack and welcome! It’s a common question with a lot of confusing grey area, so don’t feel bad at all about asking. If you’re certain the tree grew on its own and wasn’t intentionally planted, yes marking it as “wild” is appropriate. It looks like this situation kicked in for your observation: …

Oh, I do water it occasionally, although when it first grew no humans were living on the property. I’ll mark it as cultivated after all, then.

That is not true. There is nothing about that in the official iNat definition of captive. It it grew there by itself, it’s wild, regardless of what people may or may not do to it.

I agree that it is not true. I’d also add that it would be an entirely impractical standard. If any human does anything directly for a wild organism it becomes not wild? This would mean every wild bird fed by humans is not wild. Every sea turtle nestling intentionally protected from vehicle traffic …

This is true and was discussed many times. “humans intended it to be then and there” is directly what caring for plants means. @dlevitis no, what a reach, plants have totally different standarts, human help makes them more likely to survive, e.g. killing plants around.

There is a very famous Saguaro on iNat found in Joshua Tree growing far outside its normal range https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4829899 There are now many observations and it’s becoming a pilgrimage destination. But is it wild? There is a lot of debate. Many people suspect that someone pla…

@jack-odanaka Welcome to the forum, and (to me) the never ending debate over wild vs cultivated plants. With respect to my friend @marina_gorbunova I would consider the tree wild, even if you have watered it. I feed birds (and unintentionally some mammals), but they are all wild. I have also reared …

Just watering imo is okay, I only mentioned it to find out if something is being done to the tree, but again, I don’t get why people keep comparing animals to plants, plants can’t move and thus iNat can’t treat them the same way.

No offence intended. To me, the distinction between plants and animals is less clear cut. If I stick a tree in the ground, it is cultivated. Same if I plant seeds. I guess the difference is ‘provenance’ - many plants are live for centuries, so if I see an old tree I don’t always know how it got ther…

As I understand it, if you don’t know if it was planted, it’s ok to leave it as wild, though my own observations of such old&non-native trees I mark as cultivated if I observe them at all, it’s always easier to find a small one, if there’s none, it’s even more likely tree was planted.

Do I misunderstand the wild–cultivated distinction?

General

marina_gorbunova April 14, 2022, 7:48pm 3

To add, it also depends on which kind of garden it is, if you do something directly for that tree, it’s not wild anymore, but if don’t, it’s still wild.

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When is a plant no longer considered "cultivated?" Nature Talk	127	8681	August 30, 2020
Wild or Cultivated? How to tell General	56	7516	March 2, 2021
Intentional marking cultivated plants as wild General	19	1055	September 7, 2020
Calling planted plants "cultivated", rather than just "planted" is confusing General	20	2212	October 27, 2021
Are the standards of what is considered cultivated different from captive? General question	13	884	October 26, 2023

Do I misunderstand the wild–cultivated distinction?

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