There is no documentation that provides guidance to curators about when to subdivide a genus. I recently flagged a genus to be subdivided but consensus was lacking so I posted a general forum article on infrageneric subdivision . That feedback was helpful but at least one curator felt it was inadequa…

I’m supportive of ranks between genus and species when it makes a very speciose genus easier to work with. For example, if it narrows down the number of possible species in a genus that contains 100 to maybe 10 within a subgenus. Especially in cases when you can’t get an observation down to specie…

[image] trscavo: There is no documentation that provides guidance to curators about when to subdivide a genus. see https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide#nodes

For all intents and purposes, a genus should only be subdivided when this subdivision is recognized in literature and/or is recognized in a database used as a reference for the group.

Exactly this. iNaturalist is descriptive of recognized taxon frameworks, not prescriptive. Adding any taxa that are not either formally recognized in the scientific literature or within some sort of recognized taxonomic database is not how this site is to be used.

I’ll do a short answer since i had developped my point of view in our related flag. : Genus subdivisions should be as describe for complexes in our curator guide : Monophyletic : or at least the key nodes, we do not have always a complete valid phylogenic tree to fill it entirely, but that’s ano…

[image] Kélian Gautier: Genus subdivisions should be as describe for complexes in our curator guide : If we are going to use the complex guidelines for other infrageneric ranks, it might be worth mentioning another guideline which as far as I know has only ever been mentioned by staff on the R…

In general, avoid subdividing taxa unless it actually helps with identification. And any new subgeneric taxa need to be recognized in the literature. iNaturalist curators should be making curatorial decisions, not taxonomic decisions. We should be looking at what taxonomy is most current and prevale…

[image] Kélian Gautier: Genus subdivisions should be as describe for complexes in our curator guide [image] upupa-epops: If we are going to use the complex guidelines for other infrageneric ranks, it might be worth mentioning another guideline @bouteloua already provided the link above…

Guidelines give details about species complex, not above (subsections, sections, subgenus) it should be extended to those taxa for clarity.

Based on comments, I probably need to illustrate with an example. Consider a genus of flowering plants distributed across Europe, Asia, and North America. In the 19th century, an Old World botanist named and described two sections, placing each of the Eurasian species in the appropriate section. La…

When should a genus be subdivided?

Curators

upupa-epops October 14, 2025, 1:02am 14

POWO doesn’t work with plant ranks between genus and species, so primary literature is generally the only source available.

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When should a genus be subdivided?

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