Is there a project for mangroves before they have an ID? Or do I have to find the local mangrove specialist and ping them? I looked up the mangroves of the world project but its definitely not for something at dicot. I know the plant is a mangrove! I don’t know the differences. (I do know the mangrove specialist for my country, but I occasionally wander out of my country.)
I could ID Rhizophora and withdraw immediately upon it being noticed, I suppose, but that feels stopgap especially if it finally gets noticed when I’m not paying attention to the site/I miss it in a pile of notifications.
This didn’t help :( though it does have decent ideas. The “ID to dicot and hope someone trips over it” has been a method I’ve used before. It doesn’t seem optimal.
In order to do that, all the mangroves would need to be at least identified to a mangrove-containing taxon. In the Caribbean, we have four species of mangroves in three different families: red mangrove is Rhizophoraceae, black mangrove is Acanthaceae, and white and buttonwood mangroves are Combretaceae. This has led to mangroves getting stuck at “Dicots” when someone makes an initial ID of “Mangroves” (which will put it in Rhizophoraceae) and then soneone who knows more IDs it as black, white, or buttonwood mangrove.
Three different families that aren’t even in the same order? You know, there are some times when a common name fails. Might as well give up and call them “trees”.
Someone’s feeling sassy! Y’know, friends asked me for the definition of a tree once. That was… well I certainly read some interesting things during that discussion. Lets go with that.
I believe Strelitzia nicolai can reach that size! It’s certainly a topic for pedants, anyway. I generally am more inclined to quibble about the definition of an understorey.
Horticultural definition (overly simplistic): Single stemmed woody plant over a particular height (I’ve forgotten what it was). The problem is that this definition automatically renders mallees as shrubs.
You could create the project yourself, you don’t need to own the project to add observations and you can always add more managers down the track if you like.
It’s messy! I found this a mildly fun read on the complications of the topic, if you’re amused by dry literature. 31 different definitions of a tree, depending on your country…
Lastly, for future international treaties, protocols, conventions, agreements, etc. get agreement on meaning of key terms before the documents are signed rather than waiting later for someone else to tell the politicians what they meant
I think that’s the most “humor” I’ve ever seen in a Scientific paper! Yeah definitions can be a real mess when everyone has their own slightly different idea as to what something is.
