Solanum Supinum Dunal and Solanum Umtuma

General
1

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting here. I’m currently unable to message people who are sharing observations and I’m not sure why, so I thought I’d post instead.

I’m looking for Solanum supinum Dunal and Solanum umtuma in the Eastern Cape area. If anyone could assist me in locating these species, I’d greatly appreciate it.

For context, I’m a medicinal chemist at NMU and currently pursuing my PhD. The plants are needed for my research, and any guidance or leads would be incredibly helpful.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance!

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What ecaxtly do you need help with?
Solanum supinum has ~150 listing with location & Solanum umtuma around 180, all located in the east.
The question for me is: Why are you unable to use iNats messanger, because that is strange.

Is the question about how to make contact to relevant obsevers or how to obtain the data?
Are you also not able to comment on relevant observations?

Depending on your specific needs, you may use a project but not sure if thats needed.
I would like to help but I am not sure how.

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Hi, thanks so much for the reply.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, whether that’s messaging the observers directly on my behalf and sharing my email address with them, or providing details of a Solanum plant you’ve personally observed.

I’m particularly interested in the fruits, so I’m looking for specimens with ripe fruits specifically.

I am unable to access the messaging and comment section I think it might be because I have a new account.

4

So. Alright, I think, I get it.
First of all, I am not sure if you are brand new to inaturalist, so, please, forgive any overexplaining of common knowledge.
To find the observations you are looking for you can follow those links:
S. Supinum
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=594586
S. Umtuma
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=594589
Or, the advanced version with both species combined into one search:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch&verifiable=true&taxon_id=594586%2C594589
(shifting this to the observations page results in infinit loading, same for comma-seperated taxon IDs. Not sure why)
However. You can set up a normal collection project and set the rules to include those two taxa only. That gives you the general overview.

Best help that I can provide is to make sure the plants are properly annotated so you can find the fruiting ones easily.
In this case you would need to set up a so called traditional project and include the rule to only filter for those taxa with the annotation “fruits”.

I am not sure if I can message everyone on your behalf but it might be useful to check out the top observers and their profiles. Maybe they provided some contact info.

I believe the messaging function will become available at some point but I am not sure whats required. For some things you need X own observations but on the other hand I see many identifiers without any observations. Hope that part solves itself.

I think, given we only talk about roughly 300 observations, I can get the annotations done for you asap.
I am wondering if you are able to reply to messages send to you or if thats not possible either.

I would recommend including your interests and contacts on your profile.

I just noticed that most observations are not RG yet. Maybe you can ID some of them? Within the ID you can usually place a comment… It would be super weird if thats impossible too.. There gotta be some thing you can do :D

2 Likes
5

One obs. Last active July 2024.

You could work thru annotating those 2 sp yourself - which might convince iNat that you are ‘active and in good standing’. Or add some obs from a weekend hike? Or help to ID your 2 sp to RG - since you would have the knowledge of your study choice. iNat identifiers are all volunteers and skilled taxon specialists are very welcome!

25 for supinum https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?taxon_id=594586&place_id=any

64 for umtuma https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?taxon_id=594589&place_id=any

Each taxon page will show you a map for those obs. For ripe fruits - not sure if there is an observation field - but iNatters can annotate for ‘fruit’ then you would sort green and ripe for your research.

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There is Fruit Phenophase for example. And several other observation fields ofc.. But Fruit Phenophase has some great options to pick from, I think.
You tickled my curiosity. Might start using this field. Thanks for the inspiration Diana!

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Have you approached the botany dept at your university? That seems a more practical way to find, perhaps another student, who will find ripe fruit with you? (then using iNat obs and map as a clue)

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you’ll need to change taxon_id= to taxon_ids= in the explore url to search for multiple taxa at once

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Uh. Thank you very much. I never experienced issues with going from ID to OBS or back ever befor.
That’s good to know. Much appreciated!

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10

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your replies, and apologies for the late response, I’ve only just had the chance to check the forum.

I’ve spoken with the ITC team from iNaturalist, and they’ve advised me on how to resolve the issue. I’ve also been in touch with North-West University, who have kindly agreed to assist me with fruit samples.

Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

Best regards,

James

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You need to have made 3 IDs for others, or three research grade observations, and have a confirmed email address, in order to message others. Looks like @James6985 has made no observations and two IDs.

1 Like