Who uses Captive observations?

[youssefelnahas]

I mainly only use them when I need to identify something but I imagine they are useful when paired with bees and other insects / organisms who are attracted to specific host plants. I believe they also help train the AI identification tool on the site to make it more accurate

[jasonhernandez74]

@connlindajo

Yes… We rant about invasive plants yet our gardens and landscapes and and plant nurseries and garden centers are full of them. Captive/cultivated specimens are a source of the problem. Seeing them for sale locally really concerns me. During an Invasives BioBlitz I encouraged the inclusion of cultivated invasive species.

Worse, gardeners choose hem BECAUSE they are invasive. How often have you heard a gardener say, “I want something that will grow fast and be low maintenance”? Those are invasive traits.

Prime example: bittersweet vine. We have a native North American bittersweet, so I asked the question, why do gardeners plant the Asian one instead. The answer was that the Asian one grows faster and produces more fruits. In other words, gardeners prefer it for its invasiveness.

[blue_celery]

I could find of a certain interest observations of potentially invasive cultivated plants growing close to natural areas or to areas that could allow their spread.

For the rest, as long as users take care to set as casual the observations depicting non-wild plants or animals, they are free to go on posting such observations.

[jasonhernandez74]

@blue_celery

For the rest, as long as users take care to set as casual the observations depicting non-wild plants or animals, they are free to go on posting such observations.

Or someone like me does it for them, if I can see that it is obviously the case (e.g. a houseplant).

[jon_sullivan]

It’s already been said above, but, for emphasis, cultivated plant observations are very useful for invasive plant research, and insect herbivore host range research, and research on how climate change is affecting plant phenology.

I’ve tried to use iNat plant observations in my own research for tracking new weed naturalisations in New Zealand, but it’s hard to do because not enough iNat users consistently mark cultivated plants as cultivated. Unfortunately, that makes it a big job separating wild from non-wild observations in downloaded iNat plant data.

[blue_celery]

Me too, and I really have had enough of it! ;-)

[lera]

Hi - I have added a few cultivated plants from the local botanical gardens for this reason too - but mostly for my own amusement / to help me look at the plants more closely. I am not sure many people would find them though, as they don’t pop up on the observations list from the taxon page. You’d have to know to filter for ‘verifiable’ = any.

[jurga_li]

Count me in, too ;-)

[blue_celery]

I know

[hildegard3]

Thank you!

[kmagnacca]

@neontetraploid

There are also a handful of users (myself included) who add cultivated plants (orchids in particular) so that there are at least representatives of each species on the iNat database so people who encounter them in the wild can see what they look like.

Yes, I think this is the main valid reason for including captive/cultivated taxa. Especially for rare plants. Unfortunately in my area people tend to overwhelm the observations with the same handful of cultivated or invasive taxa, which are almost invariably not tagged as such.

[tparkeressig]

I may have a less-common situation, but as a professional gardener that specializes in habitat gardens and native plants, I have a few uses:

1 - I teach my clients the basics of uploading to iNaturalist in hope that they will get hooked and begin more closely observing and appreciating the life around them, this usually occurs in their yard and therefore with their very definitely cultivated plants. (I specifically point out the “cultivated” selector from the start, never fear.)

2 - I upload to iNat to create lists of what is wild on site (native or otherwise) versus what plants we add, and use “cultivated” to designate what is a local native grown from wild seed versus its offspring repopulating the area (or the always-wild plant from the botanic preserve on the other side of the hill, or the little scraps of remnant populations you find at the edges of lots around here sometimes.)

3 - I use it when I use iNat to identify “exotic” garden plants I have not yet learned yet because I simply don’t plant those, but that a client wants me to care for for them. And then to separate those observations from what is genuinely feral/naturalized/invasive in our surrounding wildlands.

4 - I suppose I could look through local cultivated posts to see what grows well in our region that is non-native, if a client were to insist on it for some reason. Or to check if their insisted thing was going to contribute to an invasives problem.

5 - I upload to help train the AI system.

[awsalas]

For me is very important to have ID for species used by pollinizators, fruit, perch, nestling. And is very importan to have records of phenology as many species depends on these resources. I have my own loca project considering these records.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-y-fauna-de-parques-las-dalias-pallardelli-lima-peru
I know the municipality have a map with the trees in the area, but is not a public information for now. Then, iNat is a very important tool for my need.
Greetings!
Antonio