Since iNat uses POWO for plant taxonomy, why doesn’t it appear on the list?
When the Wiki link lacks distribution info I can get that from POWO, but I have to google for the link. Or is it hidden somewhere else on iNat?
Many clicks away on the taxonomy tab.
Could we have POWO automagically added to the About list for less clicks.
Maybe this would be better as a Feature request?
Personally though I consider POWO quite poor for assessing distribution. In general it is far too broad. Alternatively you could use GBIF, which is in the list, or, if you really do want POWO, follow the link to IPNI and once there one more click will take you to POWO.
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Agree, in POWO generalized to countries usually and you cannot trust absence data at all - it can be that those countries distribution data from published works just haven’t been added yet (same with absence data on GBIF, big countries are missing because data has not been geolocated yet). Still, it is better than nothing, and both will get better with time.
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I don’t need scientific detail. Is it wild in this country, because it is an invasive alien, or because this is its natural distribution - is what I want to know. Wild or cultivated is only half the story.
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POWO links are already available on the About Tab in a couple of places:
- At the bottom of the Wikipedia article (when present, which is not always), there is a box of Taxon Identifiers for that taxon, including the one for POWO. One has to squint through the box alphabetically to find it. Not ideal, but it’s there.
- In the More Info column at right, the International Plant Names Index look-up results have always provided links to the corresponding POWO records. I renamed that link IPNI + POWO to make this more obvious going forward.
Do these options address the need?
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Yes, thank you - have been out Fynbos Rambling
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