Just wondering if the “Observations of Relatives” page is working right. I was looking at an observation of Gentiana newberryi, and I selected “Observations of Relatives” at the bottom of the observation page. The result was a page of observations of Gentiana newberryi (some were subspecies of it), but no other species. I had thought that “Observations of Relatives” would give results showing other Gentiana species. Didn’t there used to be “Commonly Misidentified as . . .” that provided those results?
I tried about 10 other observations randomly, all having the observation ID at species level. In every one of them, that species was the only one returned.
There is a “similar species” tab at the bottom of the species profile pages which lists commonly misidentified species, but I have no idea if this feature ever appeared on an observation page.
I think it’s working as designed although I’m not sure what the full purpose may be. If IDed to species, it will show other obs of the species. I did get other subspecies in my test. If the ID is only to genus or above, you tend to get a mix of species.
See what it says for a species with very few obs. Maybe it will be forced to show other species.
Heh. Tried a species with only 4 obs. It showed the other 3 obs as relatives. The rule seems to be “as closely related as can be determined”. So it won’t venture outside of the finest level of community ID.
If you want a wider selection than This species click your way up the taxonomy tree. Which I often do when I come across something new to me (where does it fit in with what I do know?)
