# Help! Too Many Cacti! **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Tags:** mostly-humor, observations\ **Created:** [April 30, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432 "2022-04-30T17:29:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mrtnlowr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/mrtnlowr/32/6890_2.png) [@mrtnlowr](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/mrtnlowr)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/1 "2022-04-30T17:29:52Z")
This is madness šŸ˜± šŸ˜ƒ Over 600 new observations of Cactaceae from around La Paz city, Bolivia this week and there are less than 10 species in the region. It seems that everybody is out with a camera and nearly every individual plant has been posted several times! I canā€™t keep up with the IDs! ---
**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/2 "2022-04-30T18:16:18Z")
You donā€™t have to identify any observations you donā€™t want to. Feel free to take a break or just not identify observations from that area. Also, the identification period of City Nature Challenge doesnā€™t really start until Tuesday. The organizers of the La Paz CNC should have tried to recruit identifiers who might not start until then. ---
**Author:** ![jimkingdon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jimkingdon/32/24020_2.png) [@jimkingdon](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jimkingdon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/3 "2022-04-30T18:45:47Z")
Iā€™ll take the ā€œmostly-humorā€ tag as an indication that the poster isnā€™t seriously traumatized by the situation. Unfortunately, I canā€™t help much myself - I know some (not all) of the cacti from my own region (southwest United States) but La Paz would be a bit of a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![jf920](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jf920/32/19263_2.png) [@jf920](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jf920)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/4 "2022-04-30T18:45:56Z")
Ive recently notived an incredible amount of Crassulaceae species from that city aswell. What is going on there? Almost all of them are from new users, using mostly wrong CV IDs and never respond to corrections so the ID gets stuck. Also always refusing to mark as cultivated. Its really annoying and at an incredible scale. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/5 "2022-04-30T18:54:16Z")
Be aware that big part of those observations are cultivated, though, if theyā€™re wild and thereā€™re only a few species, itā€™s a certain plus to easy ids! @jf920 thereā€™re also users marking cultivated things, but not adding any ids!.) ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/6 "2022-04-30T19:01:32Z")
I value your skilled IDs. Maybe, for you it would be good to let the tsunami of City Challenge obs pass. And then return to IDing after things have settled again. I was swamped in lavender yesterday. Clearing the routine stuff, so skilled identifiers can focus on the interesting ones. ---
**Author:** ![fmiudo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/fmiudo/32/5584_2.png) [@fmiudo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/fmiudo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 7:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/7 "2022-04-30T19:14:38Z")
![meme](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/a/b/abc9f067be7ae8fb30ed879511f635c588181824.png) in comics/meme format (with special guest Mr. Very Blurred Cacti) ---
**Author:** ![lisa\_bennett](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lisa_bennett/32/2592_2.png) [@lisa\_bennett](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lisa_bennett)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/8 "2022-04-30T20:54:08Z")
Mr Very Blurred cactus šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚ ---
**Author:** ![lisa\_bennett](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lisa_bennett/32/2592_2.png) [@lisa\_bennett](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lisa_bennett)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/9 "2022-04-30T20:59:12Z")
Is it helpful to you if I sort out the opuntia (only to genus)? That is the extent of my cacti-identifying abilities. I sometimes go through the cacti observations and do that, but I have no idea how helpful it is. Although, first Iā€™m going to get my closest city (Wellington, New Zealand), to the top of the CNC leaderboard šŸ˜† ---
**Author:** ![anon83178471](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@anon83178471](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/anon83178471)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/10 "2022-04-30T21:29:18Z")
I feel the same way with phragmites. Iā€™m used to maybe 10-15 new observations a day and today there were 5 pages! It can be overwhelming but Iā€™m just happy that people are out and using the site. ---
**Author:** ![lynnharper](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lynnharper/32/22908_2.png) [@lynnharper](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lynnharper)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/11 "2022-04-30T21:46:20Z")
Iā€™m not overwhelmed by the CNC observations yet, but thatā€™s because Iā€™m still uploading my own observations! Tuesday is soon enough to be overwhelmed. And I agree with you that it is really great that so many people are out looking at everything and using iNat. ---
**Author:** ![earthknight](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/earthknight/32/32879_2.png) [@earthknight](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/earthknight)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 12:45am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/12 "2022-05-01T00:45:56Z")
Looking at the observations in the area there are a ton of ā€œunknownā€ observations, some of which have a very basic (and often incorrect) ID in the comment rather than in the ID slot. When you look at the userā€™s profiles theyā€™re brand new users who appear to be using the app mainly as a camera type app and donā€™t know how to use it properly yet (other than to take photos of living things). I suspect that whoever organized this didnā€™t do a good enough job of instructing new participants on how to use iNat. ---
**Author:** ![mrtnlowr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/mrtnlowr/32/6890_2.png) [@mrtnlowr](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/mrtnlowr)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 10:04am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/13 "2022-05-01T10:04:28Z")
Still laughing ā€¦ šŸ¤£ šŸ˜‚ ---
**Author:** ![mrtnlowr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/mrtnlowr/32/6890_2.png) [@mrtnlowr](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/mrtnlowr)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 10:05am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/14 "2022-05-01T10:05:40Z")
Do we know who the organizers are? ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/15 "2022-05-01T12:57:18Z")
Each regional project has its own organisers. You can follow each link from the map [https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022](https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022) @earthknight organisers offer various courses - but you cannot **force** onboarding. I have four and half thousand unknowns waiting for me on the Cape Peninsula. ā€˜I may be some timeā€™. ---
**Author:** ![aphili8](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/aphili8/32/13337_2.png) [@aphili8](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/aphili8)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/16 "2022-05-02T13:46:52Z")
Remember that last week was peak time for observations with all the bio-blitzes etc. going on. There is always a spike in dataā€¦ it will get better. On Friday I would try to advance through Pennsylvania plant observations, but actually found myself going backwards with all the ones being added. ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/17 "2022-05-02T19:51:34Z")
Midnight today ends the City Nature Challenge. Then a grace period to upload photos ā€¦ and by the next CNC we may, have caught up with IDs šŸ¤£ ---
**Author:** ![lisa\_bennett](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lisa_bennett/32/2592_2.png) [@lisa\_bennett](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lisa_bennett)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2022, 5:51am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/18 "2022-05-04T05:51:46Z")
Please donā€™t drive yourself to have the same end result as Oates (who was also some time)! ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2022, 8:14am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/19 "2022-05-04T08:14:25Z")
Going to Kirstenbosch today. No photos. Just my sister and I walking among fynbos šŸ˜ ---
**Author:** ![lynnharper](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lynnharper/32/22908_2.png) [@lynnharper](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lynnharper)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2022, 10:25am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432/20 "2022-05-04T10:25:29Z")
No photos?? You can walk in the natural world and not feel compelled to take photos for iNat? My hatā€™s off to you - I donā€™t have that kind of self-control. [Next page](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-too-many-cacti/31432.md?page=2)