I recently observed [Oakland Mariposa Lily] Calochortus umbellatus.
When I zoomed in on the map of previous observations, a large number of them appear to be located well off the California coast in the Pacific Ocean.
This seems buggy to me.
I recently observed [Oakland Mariposa Lily] Calochortus umbellatus.
When I zoomed in on the map of previous observations, a large number of them appear to be located well off the California coast in the Pacific Ocean.
This seems buggy to me.
It’s because the species is being automatically obscured based on its conservation status.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/51054-Calochortus-umbellatus#status-tab
You can read more about geoprivacy on iNaturalist here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#geoprivacy
There is an open flag to continue the discussion about whether or not this species should be automatically obscured: https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/371468
Ah… thank you! This makes sense.
Another possibility with shore-dwelling plants is that there’s not always a 1:1 overlap between the Satellite view and the mapped shoreline/ highwater mark in google maps. So this can also happen with un-obscured species as well, depending on whether the person is adding location based on GPS, or just eyeballing either the map or the satellite image and then sticking in the pin for location.
Not suggesting that’s what’s going on here, but it has been known to happen.