More recently I adopted Gaultheria of North America and learned of fascinating diversity elsewhere in the world (diversity that I don’t understand, yet). I adopted Xanthium, cocklebur, which as a mistake. Right now I’m selecting observations mostly by geography. That will change.
I’ve definitely ‘adopted’ a couple of these (Metasequoia glyptostroboides and Ilex crenata). A few tips for anyone wishing to help ID/mark cultivated:
Acer campestre: CV often gives this erroneously for the Liquidambar styraciflua ‘rotundiloba’ cultivar, a planted street tree; the sweetgum will have (often very lightly) serrated margins.
Maclura pomifera: these are both planted and escaped where I am, but fruit from a cultivated tree is still considered cultivated by iNat and should be marked as such.
Metasequoia glyptostroboides: often confused with Taxodium—look for opposite leaves and distinctive cones. Almost always cultivated.
Ilex crenata: sometimes confused wiith Ilex glabra; both planted and escaped.
i haven’t adopted a species yet but I find that really cool and something I would probably enjoy as I love organizing and completing tasks. I’m not exactly the best at iding anything other than birds (which I have noticed tends to be a quite popular area here), so I’m not currently aware of any species that would need help with going through observations, but if i discover any (or if anyone has any suggestions) i would probably get some fun out of that!
I adopted Penstemon spectabilis because it was one of the first purple-flowered Penstemons included in Computer Vision, so purple Penstemons all over the western US were being identified as it. I added correct IDs to observations outside of its range and confirmed observations within the range. Lots of purple Penstemons have been added since then, so it’s not really a problem anymore.
Same thing happened with Hemizonia congesta (California) and Blepharipappus congesta.
Fortunately, with all of the new iNat users and new observations, CV is becoming less California-biased.
Yes: the genus Hernandia, nominate taxon of the family Hernandiaceae. The two most widespread species are Hernandia sonora and Hernandia nymphaeifolia, both of which have ovate, peltate leaves. Peperomia hernandiifolia also has ovate, peltate leaves. And, I have found genus-level misidentifications, beause Pilea peperomioides has ovate, peltate leaves.
I’ve done the same for Urania (2 easily separated forms but are frequently misidentified) and a few other genera of moth which have pretty quick ID confirmations.
I see the super common Noctua pronuba left as Needs ID a lot. Maybe because it’s so variable most peole don’t know they are al lthe same thing.
Hello. I am fairly new to all this and have been trying to help out by making high level IDs (sometimes phylum, sometimes order). If anyone knows of any easy to ID, neglected things in the Pacific northwest, I would love to hear about them. Actually being able to ID something to family or genus would be a refreshing change.