This week, a few of my observations of invasive and introduced species were marked as “Captive/Cultivated” or “Location is Inaccurate”. I upload a lot of photos, and I have seen this happen many times, of which it’s mostly me failing to mark it as captive.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/92283284#activity_identification_b3fc508a-1935-4749-8227-896f824b1f86 is an example from today where it was marked Casual.
This observation is of an invasive population of Sacred Lotus, which was never planted. It has become a nuisance for lakes and reservoirs, like Water Chestnut but on a smaller scale.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130773125 is another example from this week, where it was marked “Captive”, even though this plant is very invasive in the Azores.
When I identify, I only mark things as captive when I am confident it was planted(seeing pots, signs, trees on street sidewalks, etc.) However, if I am wary on cultivation, I tend to let it be.
It’s frustrating for this to happen because in the case of the Sacred Lotus, a Casual grade observation could take away from data that goes to the NY Department of Environmental Conservation.
Thanks.
It may be worth private messaging both those people.
One is interested in non-native aquatic plants, the other is one of my trusted identifiers (and approachable)
Yes, I would definitely @ them and explain why these votes are incorrect. Users should not use the “location is incorrect” downvote just to send an observation to casual. The field is for observations where the entered location isn’t where the photo was taken, but I have seen cases where it is abused to send observation of invasive/introduced organisms to casual.
it might be worth bringing the “escapee/Non-established” observation field to some users’ attention as this often does what they are interested in (though not in these cases where the organisms are established).
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