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
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.
Trees. Join the tree project and add obs that are clearly trees from anywhere in Africa. There are also two links for CV identified trees that are not in the project yet.
Lichens. ID all Lichens as Lecanoromycetes (= Lichens) rather than simply Fungi. Yes, not all Lichens are in this group, but almost all of them are: so the specialists will reidentify in those few cases.
@jeanphilippeb 's CV projects. These are obs that CV has IDed to lower level than they are currently at. You can help by adding these IDs (or lower if you know) officially. Links in the original post.
Number of observations in thousands for Africa excluding the Cape (counts including Cape in brackets).
Most recent counts shown as change relative to start of week 2 (07-08-2023)
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!
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.” ;)
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!
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!
Change in observations per week in thousands for Africa excluding the Cape (counts including Cape in brackets).
Counts shown as change relative to start of each week
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)
Observations not in Flora of Africa. Black lines are including the Cape
Change in observations in Flora of Africa, relative to start of project.
I’m trying to understand the graphs. Are these showing Needs ID only and the reason the number of observations at species level is dropping is because they are confirmed to research grade?
I am stuck on the first line. 20K plants melting away at 4K a week!! In 5 weeks all done? (Except the persistent residue does get more difficult)
I have used a copypasta - observer has gone, dormant - one bobbed up - NO, no, I’m back! So perhaps they are looking at iNat to see what happens to their obs, but not logging in?
Thank you! Happy little lights and thank yous coming from across Africa.
Yep, since the mission is identification, the true 100% success of the overall mission would be reached if every line got to zero. But the modest goals for the month are at the “can we see a slope somewhere” level. Thanks to the handy graph updates (thanks a bunch for all the help!), it looks like there have been some accomplishments!
