Search external name provider creates taxa that are both grafted and ungrafted simultaneously

Platform (Android, iOS, Website): web

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) : any (I used Chrome)

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/search or anywhere you can choose to search external name provider

If you search external name provider for a taxon that belongs under a locked taxon in iNat, the name will be imported and exist in a semi-grafted state. As an example, Inocybe is locked. I searched COL2012 for Inocybe calida, a species which iNat did not have. The new taxon was created and the taxon page shows the full ancestry for the species.

But the json shows no ancestry and the edit taxon page has nothing filled out for the parent.

Additionally, iNat created a flag saying the taxon didn’t graft.

If a curator sees the flag, checks on the species page and sees the ancestry, they’re likely to resolve the flag. But someone later on may edit the taxon, for example to add a conservation status, and when they save the taxon, it becomes ungrafted for real, i.e. the taxon page shows no ancestry. (Assuming they don’t notice and fix the empty parent.)

image

I also once opened the edit taxon page and I swear I didn’t save changes, but the taxon still became ungrafted. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to reproduce that exact process.
At any rate, it should not be possible to create new taxa under locked taxa and have them seem to be grafted.

2 Likes

I’ve seen weird stuff like this before but with groups that weren’t locked. Seems to be an issue with importing. I’ve mostly noticed when an ID had the Life icon but the taxon page showed it to be properly grafted (I think, maybe it was some other reason).