Hello! I’ve been using the iNaturalist app to make observations (and occasionally ID some) for about half a year. It has been lovely getting more information on the flora, fauna, and other living stuff around me, as well as seeing what other people have reported nearby. Favourite find so far is some…

Use your best judgement but don’t routinely expect others to correct this kind of error, as it is often not readily apparent. Note that species which escape from gardens and parks and manage to grow by themselves are indeed considered wild on iNaturalist. And species which were originally planted …

Hi @DCTropics , welcome to the iNat Forum. You can review some previous discussions about this topic, as well as the staff responses here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/add-a-third-option-for-captive-cultivated-question-unknown-or-grey-area/7361 and here https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/options-fo…

This is a real problem. We need, need, need to set up “cultivated/captive” as a separate category from casual. And we need to have “needs ID” and “identified” levels within that.

[image] DCTropics: This is not “wild” but neither is it “cultivated”; we simply don’t know how it got there: When I Googled “spanish moss stuffing” just now, I saw that packages of dried Spanish moss are available from, among other sources, Michael’s and Etsy. I wouldn’t have paid this any mo…

[image] DCTropics: “I don’t know” or “cannot be determined”, either because the observer does not supply that information or does not know themselves. Yes, sometimes there is some uncertainty in ascertaining if something is wild or not, and this is especially true for plants. This uncertainty…

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I had to write it somewhere… Two suggestions: Change the definition of “Cultivated”. Instead of “planted”, which leads to a lot of guesswork and many complaints, make a time limit. e.g. “Has the plant been tended (watering, pruning, weeding, etc) …

Can my post perhaps be moved there? It seems to not really be repeating anything.

How a person can count how long those plants were there? Unless they did it themselves it’s impossible in most situations. And status of being planted is a forever one, it’s both easier and logical, tree is planted even a thousand years after, cause the spot is the same, unlike animals it can’t walk…

It’s easier to estimate or guess how long a plant has been untended than to figure out if a 50-year-old tree was planted. This is not a perfect solution, of course - there isn’t one. But the current definition of “Cultivated” is subject to the same complaint - how can you tell if something was once …

Could you provide examples? Cause if it’s growing in the wild, e.g. tree, you can easily see the pattern in each trees were planted (rows), I have a bgi patch of planted forest (oldest are around 80y-old) near my house, it looks wild, but at the certain angle you can see rows of firs. So easy soluti…

Wild or Cultivated? How to tell

General

bouteloua February 27, 2021, 4:28pm 40

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/make-captive-cultivated-not-automatically-no-id-needed/112

Topic		Replies	Views
When is a plant no longer considered "cultivated?" Nature Talk	127	8709	August 30, 2020
The category of "cultivated" is problematic for plants in urban landscapes General	141	12576	May 31, 2019
Trees that were planted, but growing "in wild", should be considered "wild", and additional "grade" for "grey zone" is required General	75	5257	January 14, 2022
"Are these captive/cultivated?" General	32	2295	April 12, 2023
PSA - Please mark observations cultivated while ID'ing General	83	2920	May 11, 2025

Wild or Cultivated? How to tell

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