Just in from a week in the field, and off to a climate talk tonite, so some rough thoughts shod over any nuances on the dozens of responses not read. Apologies in advance.
This is surely the project that this falls under: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-africa
I need to point out that in this area of Africa I am as ignorant and stupid as everyone else, so apart from Proteaceae, you wont find me venturing many identifications (in case you have not heard, I dont ID to “plants” - except when reluctantly I have to tell someone that their observation is not a Protea and I dont have a clue beyond dicot (and then I feel a right fool (note the similarity between idiot and dicot) not helping them to family and leaving them stuck in the lowermost branches of the family “tree”).
These are mine but I can’t speak for anybody else. Another goal is to have more identifiers trained by this challenge, to be able to help in Africa with next GSB. And potentially to use the mission project as a future knowledgebase for people unused to African plants.
Flora of Africa, yes! I think that your idea will be the simplest, easiest and best solution. Conveniently it’s currently featured on the Projects page too!
I had wanted to be inclusive of all Plantae, whereas that project starts at Tracheophyta. But since nonvascular plants are not novice- or photo-friendly, excluding them for now is a good idea after all.
In this model for the challenge, a novice-level mission in Unknowns or in coarsely-id’ed Plantae, for instance, could be to increase the size of the Flora of Africa project by adding all the “missing” observations up through May 1.
By the way, I’m going on about missions but it’s really meant to be a “choose your own adventure” for every participant. It would be great if this thread could be like the identiFriday one where people can say what they’re currently working on, but it’s “doing a part of a mission in Africa.”
If folks from anywhere on the globe come to Africa for a month and look at plants, will it make Africa less “darkest” identification-wise? How many candles will it take, and will we see enough light to feel like we’re making a difference?
iNat’s Computer Vision adds new species (July update with 1,454) about monthly, so older obs might be easier now. Use JP’s yellow label phylogenetic projects as an ID to consider. Toggle the CV to Checklist to get fewer better options. Toggle CV to Visually Similar for Not Wild plants. As an active identifier join Pre-Maverick project to pre-empt being that one who blocks the CID to RG. My next target is the Pre-Mavericks for (Rest of) Africa.
(9 was be kind to yourself. You don’t have to / cannot ID all the things. Next is fine!)
Counting down, just one more to come.
That is a lighthouse blazing into the night for @lotteryd
We are halfway there already. We’ve picked the low-hanging fruit. Now comes the challenging and rewarding half.
while we’re here, may I offer the use of the ID-a-thon Discord server? It’s a good place for live collaboration and community. But I don’t want to divide people between this thread and the server. (and if so, I would like to ask for one or two volunteer moderators on the server besides myself). Please discuss for and against.
rusty as I am from my time away, I look forward to a challenge. I may take a look at the fynbos specifically, or try to-- finally – learn more about the African Euphorbia. we will see.
Identifiers who want help on an obs, particularly if they think it could be a good source of tips or discussion, are welcome to add them to the Mission Impossible project, but yeah Discord would be even better for quick feedback on any obs if people are hanging out there anyway!
Thanks Astra! We can have the ID-athon Discord link as part of the mission intel.
Re a first “mission intel briefing” or whatever, I envision that as a first journal writeup, and a revision of the first post of this thread, to be an accessible summary of links and tips to get started with. I do want one of the prominent starter tips to be about notification management. I remember @pisum had some kind of handy notification interface- does anybody have the thread for that?
Note: Some writing tasks on my to-do list through Monday, such as that briefing and some correspondence re recruitment, are currently being slowed by a PC update having disabled my laptop’s keyboard, arg why now. Apologies in advance for delay as I execute workarounds. :P
How many obs do you want (from me) on the Project? I am tempted to add a bunch just from today. The good ones resolve smartly. The better ones unfold a fascinating discussion.
50% of IDs come from just 545 identifiers! We are the top 0.3% of iNatters (I wonder what percentage of ‘still here after the first year’?) Imagine the fallout if one of those accounts is deleted.
Populating the map from far North desert mystery, also on prehistoric rock art (longest time to reach RG …?) From South Atlantic Ocean St Helena across to Madagascar where we argued across seed - fungus - insect to Madagascan Silk Angel. One more for Kilimanjaro ‘glacier on the Equator’ ish.
my laptop’s in the shop, but @arboretum_amy should have admin access to set up an invite and keep an eye on people – if she is willing! I’ll be back in the swing of things in a few days.
my fault for dropping a tiny screw under the circuit board, now I gotta pay a professional to disassemble the whole dang thing ):
As I zip through pre-2023 African observations currently ID’d at the kingdom to class level, looking for the rare one that I can identify, I sometimes find observations that look perfectly identifiable that I can’t ID. Finally it occurred to me to accumulate them in a project. I’ve given it the clunky name “Maybe Identifiable African Plant Observations.” See if you can name them. (I’ll remove any that get to RG.)
My criteria: Decent flower and/or fruit photo or distinctive leaves. Flower large enough to work with. Or I am just curious. I also include some observations with two ID’s that disagree, but which it seems to me could be resolved.
Although most of the best African plant photos are from South Africa, this project does NOT include observations South Africa (except I few I was curious about) because (1) doing anything (except ID at family or lower) with observations there can annoy people and (2) easily identified South Africa plants are probably already ID’d as far as they can be (mostly; I easily ID’d a few as Fabaceae or Asteraceae).
If you think this project is a bad idea, let me know and I’ll remove it.
If you want it modified, let me know and I’ll change it if I can.
If some observations are not actually easily ID’d, let me know and I’ll remove them from the project.
If you want to add observations to the project, join and do that.
Okay I think if you click here you will be invited to the Discord server, and then you have to go to the “greetings” text channel and tell me your iNat user name and that you’re here for Mission Impossible. Then I have to approve you to let you into the other channels. I didn’t remove any participants of previous ID-athons so you might already be in if you participated before.
I was guessing that the challenge’s traditional project could fill a similar role to what you have set up, on the way to becoming a sort of knowledgebase. But it might end up working better in your project- we can just see what happens. Maybe add your best examples (ones that get figured out, or end up with good discussion) over to the M:I project?
Lol, due to technical difficulties I’ll be rolling with my “alt” id on Discord for the challenge, where people will see me in professor mode instead of my usual lotteryd online self. Same icon though so no prob recognizing me. ;)