Bit wary of eating a ‘garden’ onion. Could be a poisonous tulip.
That’s where having a sense of smell comes in handy.
I think it was even here and I was the one who brought this up (observers are uploading rapidly and ID a few days later). The interesting detail is that I see unknowns from obviously proficient people while I’m walking thru observations from early May.
Is there a convenient way to get the smallest enclosing group given two taxa? I.e. like timetree.org which says Chelidonium+Stylophorum=9.6 Mya, I want Chelidonium+Stylophorum=Papaveraceae.
I usually use the taxonomy tap of those taxa to finde tha last common taxon
Also if on an obs (with those 2 IDs) - you can click What’s This at the CID
to see where what who agrees or disagrees up the taxonomy tree.
And just where and how the CID algorithm has tripped over its feet.
It’s not an obs with IDs. My example was an unknown which looks like our Chelidonium majus (invasive in the US) but the US have native Stylophorum (which seems to be well-behaved, so it didn’t invade here and therefore I didn’t know it exists before recently). For European locations I can just say Chelidonium, for US I have to tell them apart (possible if flowers or bracts are visible, hard otherwise) or find the smallest clade having them both (Papaveraceae). If Inat has that function, maybe an API would be nice.
I don’t use it - but there is the Identotron (to compare the 2 species).
Perhaps someone who uses it will explain?
For yours - I open the 2 taxon pages in separate tabs. Click taxonomy. And compare.
Thanks, that’s much better than Wikipedia (it has more intermediate levels (I can use Chelidonieae now), and it uses Inat’s idea of phylogeny).
I refined that plant to Chelidonieae, and now it said I had withdrawn the (broader) Papaveraceae. No problem, but a bit misleading.
I tend to tidy up - and delete my previous ID if it is not a functional part of a discussion. Just adding clutter to no point and purpose.
I know these are suggestions that won’t be seen or followed by many iNatters but … slow down with your submissions. Upload the best photos you have and, if necessary, edit them beforehand to improve the chance that they can be IDed (i.e., crop, sharpen, adjust contrast, etc.). Don’t just snap a photo with your phone and upload it directly because much of the time the picture will not be in focus or the subject will be too small. Do your part to make it easier on the identifiers. Yes, it takes time and effort and if you took a lot of photos on a field trip you might be spending days to sort through them to find the best. And then there is the time and effort to provide an ID that is at minimum a good starting point for identifiers to use (I never leave a record at Unknown and try to get it at least to family … sometimes I go back multiple times to a record to improve my ID before anyone else sees it). The more the user can do up front, the better chance the record will get to RG and be of some use to others. That might mean fewer records are posted but they will be better records.
How could I have guessed that was hidden there, until you told me!
Thank you.
It would be good to be able to toggle that to a default personal setting.
Yes to all. And there is a reason to use a real camera even if mobile phones get better and better: Cameras often have a “sports mode” where you keep the key pressed and it shots a series of dozens of pictures. This helps not only for moving things (at macro resolution, even a slowly walking spider is hard to get) but also with tiny flowers etc., you can move the camera around a little bit and then there is hope that one of the images is in focus. And then the usual rules: try to get caterpillar-like beings also from the side or below (without harming the animal, of course) - the segments which have legs allow to separate sawflies, butterflies, Noctuidae therein and some more. This might be irrelevant for local IDers who recognize the species by e.g. color, but when I see such an “unknown” beast from e.g. Utah all I can do is to say Pterygota.
Coming back later is another good idea, especially for plants. Finer ID is often only possible after e.g. flowers are available. And shoot the underside of leaves, side view of flowers, leaf stems etc., sometimes closely related species differ in the presence of bracts, hair etc.
I ID my first ten observations properly. For the next 10-20 I leave the hard ones at a high level and just identify the easy ones. The rest I will make mistakes as the photos start to blur.
Luckily these will be on top the next day so I can correct them.
Thanks, everyone, for the good thoughts. Please take precautions against getting bit by ticks, and if you do, get treatment.
This is one reason for overheating in the summer!
For those who are unfamiliar with anti tick dressing:
SPRAY clothing with Permethrin
Always long pants.
Socks, preferably calf length, white will show passengers
Tuck pant legs into socks,
Boots. Mine are calf high, rubber.
Long-sleeved shirt ( I will confess I do a tshirt and deet) either way:
Tuck shirt into pants
Use DEET on exposed skin.
Wear a hat.
On coming inside: inspect all clothes.undress in an area where you can unlayer carefully.
Inspect yourself. Everywhere! Shower.
I never follow those precautions. Nor have I been bitten by a tick in well over a decade.
You’ve been lucky or ticks are more common where I am.
I have to say, better safe than sorry though. Tick borne diseases are on the rise. With climate change the ranges and active seasons will extend. You might at least consider DEET.
The common symptoms look like easier things on the doctors rule-out list, many don’t test for them unless you ask or get very ill.