Well, Persoon (the original describer) didn’t say. The glomerules come in pairs, so I like to imagine that he was thinking of a pair of eyes (almost certainly not the case, but fun to imagine). More likely, Euphorbia hirta (a very closely related species) has been used for at least one eye-related disorder: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23506674/. As such, I imagine the name pertains to some folk remedy involving the plant.
PS it’s E. ophthalmica
End of week 1 update: Since the start of the project the number of observations at Species level or lower has been reduced by 2000! Of which 1400 have been outside of the Cape floristic region. Observations stuck at Unknown and Plantae (Kingdom) have also dropped by about 8000 (!) most of which seem to have been moved to the upper ID layers of Flora of Africa.
Reminder: if you would like to help but are not familiar with African species, you can add annotations to fruiting and flowering plants. This helps by screening out difficult to ID obs for those who are more familiar with the local flora. link to forum post
You can all be very proud of progress thus far :) Best of luck for week 2!
| 02-08-2023 | 07-08-2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Not in Flora of Africa | ||
| Plantae at Kingdom | 20.7 (28.5) | -4.7 (-5.1) |
| Unknowns | 10.5 (15.1) | -3.1 (-3.4) |
| Flora of Africa | ||
| Phylum to Class | 37.3 (54.9) | +5.2 (+5.4) |
| Dicots | 18.9 (28.0) | +4.0 (+4.1) |
| Subclass to Subtribe | 50.3 (99.0) | +0.8 (+0.7) |
| Genus to Complex | 129.6 (315.4) | +0.8 (+0.7) |
| Species and lower | 180.0 (363.5) | -1.4 (-2.0) |
| Captive | ||
| Unknowns | 4.0 (9.4) | -0.3 (-0.3) |
| Plantae | 75.8 (179.1) | +0.3 (+0.5) |
Note - I decided to keep the baseline at the start of the week, will change it to start of this week for next update. Happy IDing!
Figures drawn from Tony R’s 6 August comment at
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-africa/journal/82637-status-of-plant-identifications-on-inaturalist-in-africa
Gained 50 species, and 40 identifiers.
1K refined to Family for the taxon specialists.
Thank you.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-africa/journal/82843-making-meaningful-identifications
Links for tree lovers.
Or plant (family) taxon specialists.
Dicots is at 8.6K No, thank you. Not yet.
Maybe Hibisceae - which is a kind one hundred.
Oh, thx.
I created some mess with the URLs. I intended t create the projects by copying one project after another. However, from time to time I was confused and renamed a project, that I just created. Once I realized my fault, I recreated the renamed project starting with a copy. That left behind some strange aliases and redirections. I’ ll try to find a way to fix it, but I geuss I will need support from a iNat staff member.
Here is an example of the result:
This is the link for the Flora of Madeira project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-madeira-766bce75-577d-43b1-be67-e3630af50ceb
If remove the cryptic string at the end and use: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-madeira
You will end up at the Flora of Rwanda https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-rwanda-8fe3992a-e7f7-4ea6-93ac-b9a9e2765f3b
If you would continue with: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-rwanda without the cryptic string
you will be redirected to Flora of South Sudan https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-south-sudan
But if you dont’t try to manipulate the url and just use the provided link in iNaturalist everything works.
I have used this extension since it was built for us. I forget that it isn’t an integral part of vanilla iNat.
Best obs / ID so far. A protea for TonyR. Only 7 obs on iNat. Look at that distribution map. (Between wheat and canola fields - not) Between potatoes and rooibos tea.
So I don’t know if it is fate or coincidence, but I was browsing my podcast home page and bright front and center it recommended this one called “Completely Arbortrary” and the second to most recent episode is about the BaoBabs Trees and I spent like 15 minutes yesterday adding annotations to those since it is the most common tree on the Flora of Africa page. I listened to the podcast and it was informative and entertaining so just wanted to post the link too!
Notably the number of obs at species and lower has shot down by 800 in just 2 days! Remarkable.
If you are moving obs from Plantae to Dicots or Tracheophyta there might be more helpful tasks that you can assist with! Condensed from this post in Flora of Africa’s journal by Tony Rebelo. Please go check out the full post for a better explanation.
| 07-08-2023 | 09-08-2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Not in Flora of Africa | ||
| Plantae at Kingdom | 16.0 (23.4) | -2.2 (-2.2) |
| Unknowns | 7.4 (11.7) | -0.3 (-0.5) |
| Flora of Africa | ||
| Phylum to Class | 42.5 (60.3) | +1.1 (+1.4) |
| Dicots | 22.9 (32.1) | +1.5 (+1.8) |
| Subclass to Subtribe | 51.1 (99.7) | +0.2 (+0.2) |
| Genus to Complex | 130.4 (316.1) | +0.4 (+0.2) |
| Species and lower | 178.6 (361.5) | -0.3 (-0.8) |
| Captive | ||
| Unknowns | 3.7 (9.0) | -0.0 (-0.1) |
| Plantae | 76.1 (179.6) | +0.1 (+0.2) |
Technical difficulties, no graphs today :(
Just be careful. Almost all are correct and can be IDed as suggested.
But only almost all. You still need to be confident it IS that.
Yesterday I had a random plant in yellow label Primates - no idea where that suggestion came from on a leafy picture. Yellow label is definitely a useful clue to work from!
Can’t add this to the project.
Not verifiable.
Planted in a botanical garden.
But the monotypic species is still interesting?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130648427
Weirdly - after flagging up as - Can’t add this to the project - it still shows on the obs as ‘in the project’. But then not on the map.
Fear of African Plantae from a nonAfrican, a picture is worth 1000 words:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/103867906
So should those words be about Pinales, some gorsey thing that’s in the same family as blueberries(!?), or maybe check out Watsoniaea[sic] on advice of JP’s project on there?
If anyone was wondering why a whole month, it’s because it gives plenty of time to get over that issue of being “Level 1-5 noob.” ;)
I will treat those leaves with careful respect … Dicot …
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/139725-Aspalathus
That explains why the common name is Cape gorse. I have never met gorse, but yellow flowers and maintain a cautious distance? If Aspalathus does bubble up, then support your gorsey response.
Do add obs that catch your attention to our project / map. An easy and effective way to recruit our target audience of observers and identifiers across Africa. 3 weeks to go - how many species will Africa gain?
Today’s obs a succulent plant in the Northern Cape, that a despairing botanist named Deceptor!
Now featuring a new graph better showing our progress so far! The numbers are truly impressive. Next update will be after the weekend.
| 07-08-2023 | 11-08-2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Not in Flora of Africa | ||
| Plantae at Kingdom | 16.0 (23.4) | -3.2 (-3.5) |
| Unknowns | 7.4 (11.7) | -0.9 (-1.7) |
| Flora of Africa | ||
| Phylum to Class | 42.5 (60.3) | +1.9 (+2.5) |
| Dicots | 22.9 (32.1) | +3.1 (+3.8) |
| Subclass to Subtribe | 51.1 (99.7) | +0.6 (+0.6) |
| Genus to Complex | 130.4 (316.1) | +0.7 (+0.4) |
| Species and lower | 178.6 (361.5) | -0.4 (-1.4) |
| Captive | ||
| Unknowns | 3.7 (9.0) | -0.0 (-0.1) |
| Plantae | 76.1 (179.6) | +0.1 (+0.2) |
There are 15 observations of Camphorbushes (Tarchonanthus) that are stuck between two identifications. They obviously belong in one of these, but they need another vote or two to get there. Would you take a look and get these to Reseach Grade? This is trivial, but very low-hanging fruit.
You can find them by searching on “Camphorbushes” or “Tarchonanthus” in the project “Maybe Identifiable African Plant Observations.”
A month? I wish. :-) Seriously, I think it’s already made a difference. I haven’t been to Africa for several years until this June. I’m having an easier time identifying my plant observations now because CV seems to knows more plants. There were only a few where CV didn’t have any suggestions. Of course, I’m not finished yet.
We’re halfway there! The second week was as productive as the first, with 7k obs moving out of Plantae (Kingdom) and Unknown. Almost another 2k obs stuck at Species and lower have been released.
I have seen an increase in genus and lower level IDs on my obs and those I follow which makes me really happy! Together we will slay this backlog beast.
Let’s see if we can make this week another great one. Happy iNatting!
| Start | Week 1 | Week 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not in Flora of Africa | |||
| Plantae at Kingdom | 20.7 (28.5) | -4.7 (-5.1) | -4.6 (-4.9) |
| Unknowns | 10.5 (15.1) | -3.1 (-3.4) | -1.1 (-2.0) |
| Flora of Africa | |||
| Phylum to Class | 37.3 (54.9) | +5.2 (+5.4) | +2.3 (+3.6) |
| Dicots | 18.9 (28.0) | +4.0 (+4.1) | +4.2 (+5.2) |
| Subclass to Subtribe | 50.3 (99.0) | +0.8 (+0.7) | +0.9 (+1.7) |
| Genus to Complex | 129.6 (315.4) | +0.8 (+0.7) | +1.2 (+0.9) |
| Species and lower | 180.0 (363.5) | -1.4 (-2.0) | -0.7 (-1.8) |
| Captive | |||
| Unknowns | 4.0 (9.4) | -0.3 (-0.3) | -0.1 (-0.2) |
| Plantae | 75.8 (179.1) | +0.3 (+0.5) | +0.3 (+0.3) |
