I have started to visit the “identify” page, and to give some tentative IDs to people’s observations. Like a lot of people on here, I am familiar with nature, especially with the common plants and animals of my area, but I am not a scientist, and don’t have specific training. So should I still give…

I just withdrew an id I made on my own observation because I learned of a name change for the species.

If it is a formal change of the taxon name, iNat graciously does that automagically.

Nice but we have misapplied European names from early American mycologists that are still valid there. When we’ve been using the European name and a new American name is coined (usually due to dna work) both names are valid. The European name is not yet circumscribed in iNat to its actual range and …

The species should be split and the IDs reassigned to genus. https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide#taxonsplit Can you flag it for curation?

Just went to flag Fomitopsis pinicola and it had been flagged with the same citation I am using. I added a link to the source.

I didn’t know about reagents. What is needed?

Reagents are chemicals that produce various color changes in parts of fungi. The three most used are Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), Iron Salts (FeSO4) and Melzer’s. Ammonia can be substituted for KOH. Melzer’s is difficult to obtain since it contains a controlled substance. Lugol’s Solution is often use…

Cool, thanks for the explanation and link!

Alternately, make the ID you think it may be, then ask for help. I’t a slightly more aggressive approach, but it usually helps learning. I don’t include confirmations in that. If you want to confirm an ID, and you are unsure, either go generic (no confirmation) or/and ask for help.

It might seem like I am asking questions just to ask questions, but I don’t really know what you mean. What does “certain” and “uncertain” mean? I am not asking this to be silly. I know what a horse looks like, and I know what a donkey looks like. To take a very common example. I can identify a h…

How much expertise should we have when identifying?

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How much expertise should we have when identifying?

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