Restoration project plants be marked casual?

Hello,

Is there a general guideline for marking plants found in restoration projects? If a plant was planted as part of a restoration project but now reproduces on its own, should these still be casual? I have read some similar posts, but could not quite get the answer I was looking for.

Based on previous posts, its sounds like this is not that big a deal, as researchers will look into the quality of the data.

Still, I visited a restored site today (RBG - Coot’s Paradise) and did not feel right about uploading 10-20 species of plants from a restored site without getting some guidance.

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If an individual plant was intentionally planted by a human, it’s should marked as captive/cultivated.

If an individual plant was not intentionally planted by a human, it should marked as wild, even if it was seeded from a cultivated plant.

This won’t be 100% knowable in all cases of course, so just use your best judgement.

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But for how long? My restoration project has been going on for a decade. Even though we’re still bringing native plants in, I know most of them have propagated from older plants since we started.

Thank you for the response.

I think that is also my issue. I visited a site where there was restoration from 2008 - so, are these plants still considered cultivated?

Yes, a plant that was planted 100 years ago (or more) by humans is still cultivated and will always be so. A plant’s offspring (assuming they reproduced naturally and without humans intentionally directing the process) will generally be wild. An “exception” to this would be something like a garden bed - if the plants remain in the same location in a bed where humans intended and under human care, this would be cultivation (not wild). If the plants reproduce outside of the garden bed/human care, they would be wild.

The Help documentation covers these scenarios:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#captive

Captive / cultivated (planted)

  • tree planted 1, 10, or 100 years ago by humans

Wild

  • garden plant that is reproducing on its own and spreading outside of the intended gardening area
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OK, thank you. I think I am clearer on that now. As long as the plant is in the same location, then its considered ‘cultivated’, but if the offspring of a cultivated plant end up in a new location (without human help), then these individuals are considered wild.

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So what if a bird, attracted by the seeded prairie plants, comes through and deposits seeds from a differnet location. Then can’t some of the plants in the cultivated prairie, now be wild?

Those are wild. In the end, try to use your best judgement. If it was put there by humans, it’s not wild.

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