USA so far has the biggest problem of unmarked cultivated plants, there’re thousands of RG city trees.
As for plants, it would be terrific to have a totally separate but equal space for cultivars and gardeners…iGarden or something. The algorithm, power and functionality of this entire space would be just as popular for a different set of plant people, for a different purpose(s), such as charting/locating heritage plants, garden escapees, where to see certain species, etc. as already described.
There’re already sites and apps for that.
One I’ve been using for this purpose in the past has gone from a free service to subscription-based and now is asking for a user fee. I’ve checked into plant inventory systems for a local garden/park and the professional ones are quite expensive. So currently the best they have is the iNat project I started for them. I do go through occasionally to mark things cultivated as I have a pretty good idea what was planted/inventoried there.
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We can use the Not Wild side of iNat down to subspecies or variety.
Not for cultivars (or dog breeds for another set of hopeful iNatters)
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Thanks for the feedback. I’ve made some updates based on your comments.
I changed the chives observation and replaced it with a photo of potted plants. Chives are tricky as they spread quickly and easily in many places so it was not the best example to use. I’m going for clearly binary examples - iNat or iNot, not iCouldBeUnderTheRightCircumstances. I originally used the picture because it was one I took of a plant in a container but I went back through my photos and found a different one. For copyright reasons, I’m using only my own photos.
I also made the audience for this slide deck more explicit: participants in the City Nature Challenge. Educators, if you would like to use this deck for your own events you will need to edit slides 1, 2, 21, 22.
Just to be clear, this is not intended as the definitive tutorial on what is captive and cultivated. I understand that what is wild and natural vs captive and cultivated often requires very specific conditions to distinguish. Case in point, the chives. This slide deck is not intended to unpack that. Rather this slide deck is a resource to get a large number of new users up to speed quickly and reduce the number of people, pet, and planted/potted plant observations that come in as part of the City Nature Challenge or during class projects.
I think this is ready to go live. I’ll be monitoring the chat for more ideas or to see how you are using this with your community.
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Do inform that researcher that it’s not necessary to intentionally mislabel organisms as wild. Observations marked captive/cultivated can still be used for research, even if not labeled “Research grade”. Cultivated observations still appear on maps (with the right filter settings), so they can be used to show ranges where organisms can be found, cultivated or wild. Labeling cultivated organisms correctly enables a researcher to separate out the cultivated specimens from the escaped ones, with separate maps for each. I would think that information would much more valuable for any kind of research than listing all observations as wild. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for adding observations of cultivated organisms properly labeled as such, but I can’t think of any reasons besides misunderstanding for labeling cultivated plants as wild.
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For self-seeded plants in pots, it should be standard practice to always include a note for the identifiers that the specimen was actually wild despite the pot. In general, I try to encourage anyone who makes observations of “typically” cultivated plants (vegetables, flowers) or typically captive animals (domestic animals of any kind) to always clarify with a note in the notes field that the specimen is wild. The same would go for any plant shown in a pot or cultivated space. That saves so much effort for the identifiers, and may help prevent legitimate wild organisms from getting wrongly flagged as captive/cultivated.
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I’m in Florida, but I believe much of the US has this problem.
I think the presentation is great, up to the point where it appears to suggest that it’s wrong to post observations of cultivated plants on iNat. Identifying cultivated plants is within the scope of what iNat was intended for, I believe - that’s why you can label an observation as “cultivated”, rather than just being expected to delete such observations. Many new users’ first few dozen observations are of the plants they see around them, in their neighborhoods, and I think that’s fine.
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As a point of clarification, I do not suggest anyone delete their observation. When I updated the presentation yesterday I intentionally included a bonus question about what to do if you upload a captive or cultivated observation.
I do state elsewhere in the deck that posting observations of captive or cultivated organisms is not what iNaturalist is about and those observations are not the intended data for iNat.
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I love it! I was looking at having to create something similar for my upcoming project, so I appreciate your making it available.
My only suggestion echoes another that I read, that it might be helpful to make the distinction between a cultivated plant (in a pot or not) and a volunteer (in a pot or not), and on “volunteers from a nearby cultivated plant” vs. “volunteers of a species not under cultivation in the immediate area.” My project focuses on volunteers in our yards that are not species under cultivation, and specifically on identifying native volunteers in our Ecoregion.
This is not to knock your slideshow, which saves me a ton of time. I thank you!
I must admit that I had no idea that plants should not be iNat’d if they had been planted. Nor did I realize that iNat didn’t “Want” captive animals. People iNat zoo animals where I am regularly - I find it annoying, but I always assumed it was one of the things I didn’t like about iNaturalist. Like eBird, which I use pretty much exclusively for birds, there really is a dearth of obvious how-to training for iNat - so thanks for this tutorial.
All that said, I use iNat to document fauna (non avian) and flora in my yard, including the native plants I have painstakingly been adding for years. It’s very helpful for that. I’ll start labeling those as cultivated, despite being native species, but if those aren’t “wanted” in iNaturalist at all, I have much less use for the application.
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There are even more types of inappropriate observations that are frequently seen but likely stray from the captive/cultivated distinctions. These are some more examples that many new users would benefit from being quizzed on in the “iNat or iNot” way.
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Taxidermized animals at museums and nature centers. Otherwise preserved specimens from the past, with the user’s current date and location listed as the observation time.
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Produce, fish, and flowers from the supermarket or grocer.
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Old photos that they had taken themselves, with wildly incorrect date and location. No I don’t believe you saw a monarch nectaring on flowers outside in the sunshine in subzero temps in January in Michigan at 11pm at night!
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Users who see something they want to post but can’t get a good photo so they Google it and then post someone else’s photo that “looks just like it”. Some also take photos of pictures in books or on signs.
These types of observations are not that uncommon with class projects and events, and I come across quite a few that actually make it to research grade with numerous supporting identifications.
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Yes, they are wanted. But iNat would like you to mark them as Not Wild.
Until they seed themselves. Then they will be Wild, and iNat will be happy! You too.
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I would say there is a categorical difference between you intentionally using iNat for documentation you find of use (cultivated native species in your yard) and 89 college sophomores roaming campus taking photos of random outdoor plants-often the same one-because they (and often their professors) don’t really understand what iNat is about or how to use it. I think your project is rather brilliant because it provides a baseline to compare volunteer plants in the future and I hope you continue with both it and the app.
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I hope you share how you modify the presentation. Honestly, I’m not going to modify the presentation to include discussion on volunteer plants. That feels like advanced beginner content to me and this is targeted to the absolute beginner. That said, I know many people will find it useful to have such a resource. Look forward to seeing your ideas!
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This is amazing! I see quite a bit of effort went into this, I will be sure to save this link to use it in the future. Helpful for educating new users!
Love your quiz! I’m still uncertain whether native plants planted in native plant gardens are considered wild or captive?
planted = cultivated = not wild
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