There’s been some talk about how to distribute the task of identification in iNaturalist to a larger group. I suspect that a lot of potential identifiers out there don’t know where to even begin. So this thread is intended to provide some information on specific taxa that will be easy for anyone to …

i think this is a hard question to answer specifically because each identifier will have a different workflow and may even use different workflows at different times. for example, if we knew there was an oak expert who exclusively identifies starting with observations at family Fagaceae level, then …

Hi everyone, Allograpta is a genus of hover flies with 2 species common in the US. At first glance they look pretty similar but I think after learning how to distinguish them they’re relatively easy from most observations. And there are a lot of observations of them as they’re very common. The spe…

Thank you to everyone who’s helped so far! We are down 30+ pages from what was there last week.

If you check the flags linked on that topic, some of them have tips to ID, like: https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/425901 https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/427929 https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/425598 https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/427440 https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/423140

@arboretum_amy - Thanks very much for this guide - very helpful for a non-expert like myself. Most of the IDs I’ve been doing are fairly clear. I’ve seen a couple which seem ambiguous - sparse hairs and bud shape more like R coulteri. How would you classify this one? https://www.inaturalist.org/…

Over time I’ve concluded the ones that look like R. coulteri in bud shape but have some sparse hairs are probably hybrid. In particular there’s a cultivar ‘White Cloud’ very common among non-wild plants which is known to be a cross of the two species. When I started out identifying I was using the r…

Thanks! I was leaning towards a hybrid as well.

[image] pisum: it is in Asteraceae, a family where a lot of observations are stuck at family (the top family in iNat in this respect). Thanks for the heads up. You inspired me to have a go at the ones stuck at Asteraceae. [image] upupa-epops: Allograpta is a genus of hover flies with 2 s…

[image] jasonhernandez74: stuck at Asteraceae a nother yellow daisy. Good luck.

Help me identify (non-experts welcome)

General

arboretum_amy December 18, 2019, 8:02pm 29

It would be helpful if this thread joined forces with the computer vision correction thread. I’d like to help them but I don’t know any of those species.

Topic		Replies	Views
New to iNaturalist and trying to help with identifications General question , identification	106	5480	August 22, 2023
Overthinking plant identification General	27	4963	January 29, 2021
How much expertise should we have when identifying? General	73	6394	June 25, 2020
Where are all the plant lovers? General	72	3493	September 21, 2022
Why won’t anyone help identify my specimens I find? General	112	2594	June 19, 2026

Help me identify (non-experts welcome)

Related topics