“Humans didn’t intend to transport it, though they did intentionally transport its home.”
… so they know where its home was and can mark that organism [wild] with that original location, as they can mark the “home” the Lichen [wild] with its original location.
If I take a branch or a leaf home to be better able to take a picture of it, then I do not mark it as from my home, but from its original location.
If an alien invader has “flown in” as a seed and grown in “my” nature reserve by its own force and established an invasion, then that invasion is [wild] even if it is [out of range].
You may be exactly correct, but I think you are reading too much into the phrasing they used. The observation notes literally say, “Was found as a caterpillar on lichen shipped from Texas”. This doesn’t say whether it was bought commercially or grabbed from a natural setting, nor who found it and shipped it, nor why. My first thought, as a scientist and field biologist, was that the OP or someone associated with them found and collected the lichen in Texas and shipped it to PA out of research interest. In either of those cases, the origin of the lichen would be known. Your concept of a commercial purchase is probably more likely, however. I have messaged the OP to get further details but haven’t heard back.
Would you expect to harvest commercial quantities of lichen in Texas? Would it not have been harvested in a more lichen-friendly climate, then shipped via Texas?
You made me curious - I googled - you can buy lichen - but there is no indication where it was harvested. None.
Without knowing which lichens arrived in Pennsylvania with the larva in tow, I can’t address the issue of “commercial quantities” of lichen. Lichens are abundant and diverse here in the Texas Hill Country, the epicenter of the distribution of the moth Cisthene tenuifascia. I can envision a shipment of something like Usnea lichen used as native/natural packing material or I can even imagine a shipment of something like lichen-covered firewood out of Texas. The lichens may or may not have been the intended shipment material. We just don’t know from the OP’s phrasing. I’m still awaiting a reply from the OP.
I have an observation that is currently research grade, but I’ve wondered if that is appropriate. See my comments clearly made on the observation. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32132146
Feel free to mark it as appropriate based on the commentary.
So if I read the description correctly, its basically an observation of a seed collected at the particular time/location as indicated in the observation, that you have grown into flowering so that it is identifiable.
I think as long as the date and location are accurate to when and where the seed was collected you could interpret that as evidence of a wild organism. Probably ideally the observation would have fruits/seeds but not flowers for its phenology annotations, which is a little unusual because the picture is flowers but not seeds.
That is just my personal interpretation; I don’t think the staff has clear policy guidance that covers that specific edge case of constructing an observation.
That’s a real tough case. I would probably err on the side of this being Not Wild since it is in a gardening area and cared for and you did specifically collect the seed.
That said, I think that the ideal approach would be to:
Make an observation with a pic of the seed at the time/place of collection (which would be wild) and link it to the cultivated plant observation (as not wild) to support the ID.
In this way, all the phenology info also becomes accurate.