I have only recently gotten up the courage to venture into the realm of identifying unknowns, which I mostly do as a break from all the thousands of pages of “Needs ID” plants in New England, my usual stomping grounds.
I find it fascinating to see all the truly bizarre stuff that is out there, most of which I make no effort to identify, because I know absolutely nothing about squishy blobs, brown specks, or mysterious translucent spheres.
What makes it rewarding are the times when I’ve taken old observations (months or even years) from Unknown to genus or species, and then had them quickly taken to RG by other identifiers.
Is there a way that people are filtering for observations that have recently moved out of unknown?
My favorites are the ones with really clear photos of easily identifiable species that even an avowed plant person like myself can recognize, like a Yellow Garden Spider, Common Garter Snake, or Eastern Newt, all of which I recently found.
Sometimes I almost think observations like that are planted, as a rewarding stimulus to keep us coming back for more…