Hi
I have observed some of the mushroom Oudemansiella gigaspora and noticed there are a lot of them around (3,470 observations on iNat).
If I can’t make a common name on iNaturalist then how could I make one for the species?
Making up a common name isn’t a great idea. But the species (group) has a common name already in use at least by some people:
https://canberra.naturemapr.org/species/9502
https://fungimap.org.au/oudmansiella-radical-group-rooting-shank/
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Take a look:
My understanding is that iNat isn’t supposed to be a source/origin of any common names, these are supposed to come from somewhere else.
However, common names can become contentious. For example, the following topic can be expressed as the following meme:
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What is a species group? Rooting Shank is Oudemansiella radicata.
What do you mean exactly?
It looks like the entire genus is often referred to as Rooting Shank mushrooms. In that case the usual default is to simply append the common genus name with a translation of the latin specific epithet. So Large Spore Rooting Shank would seem like the default common name.
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I’ve been calling it gigaspora as a common name, it’s easy to remember and a lot of things use part of the scientific name as a common name, i.e. Lomandra for Lomandra longifolia
“Species (group)” I guess is just being used to refer to any taxon.
Thank you. Good idea for a name maybe.
Do you all think a tally for name ideas would be good or is there another way to make a common name?
As per the instructions and guidelines, you shouldn’t add names to iNaturalist that aren’t in use anywhere.
https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000170373-can-i-add-common-names-
So if you really want to implement a common name, get people to start using it through other means first.
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Ever heard of Ganoderma sessile? Ganoderma sessile · iNaturalist
Almost 17,000 observations and no common name! First place on Inat for at least five years for a species without a common name.
I only use scientific names…
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What other means exactly?
Back-translating the species name is still just a method of fabricating a new common name that is not actually in common use, which is NOT what should be done on iNaturalist - there are countless forum threads where that’s been reiterated.
You wanna call it that on your own, knock yourself out, but if it’s not in actual common use, then that name doesn’t belong on iNaturalist.
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@Vireya @yayemaster @noah_vale @vreinkymov @thomaseverest if I can’t make a common name on iNaturalist then how could I go about it?
If you get it published in a scholarly paper or it becomes a common name outside of Inaturalist.
Otherwise you can add it in your description for your observation and use it personally.
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Could I just make up a name, and then other people start using or something like that?
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Unfortunately that’s not how science works.
Sooooo here’s the thing.
A lot of these mushrooms are, in the context of people who care about common names, at a level of specificity that MOST people who care about common names just.. don’t really care about. Chicken-of-the-woods refers to basically the ENTIRE Laetiporus genus, not just Laetiporus sulphureus, at least in most common parlance. Oyster mushrooms a group, and most folks who use common names just call them by the color - Pleurotus citrinopileatus = golden oyster, Pleurotus ostreatus = pearl oyster, Pleurotus djamor = pink oyster, etc.
Oudemansiella is one of those groups that is like that; they’re basically all called rooting shanks. The only one I really see (in my area) that gets a specific name is Oudemansiella furfuracea, ‘beech rooter’, and I’ll tell you that it only has that because it’s big, common, and basically ubiquitous around beech (oh, and some people eat it, so they’re more aware of it.)
Most of the people who care enough about these groups of mushrooms that are a little more cryptic are also people that pretty much just use scientific names. So you’re just not going to FIND good common names for most mushrooms, and that’s okay.
And also, please don’t just make up mushroom names. Because what happens is someone comes into the ID groups and starts talking about the ‘orange fibbilty twit’ mushroom that they found that iNat IDed and all of us end up confused as heck because we have no idea what mushroom the person is actually talking about.
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Not a different species according to those articles I linked to - have a read and see what they say about the relationship between Oudemansiella radicata and Oudemansiella gigaspora.
Maybe you just have to get enough people using a name for it to become common. Good luck with that!
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