Wild vs cultivated for seeds I sowed

General
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Hi!

I have a small patch of woods that I am trying to re-wild. As part of that, I have sowed seeds of plants that are native to that environment. That is the extent of the care I am giving these plants. Some of the plants seem to be growing this spring. Should I designate these plants as wild or as cultivated? Will there be a point where they become wild if the are considered cultivated right now? To be clear, I am not entirely sure that they are from the seeds I sowed. They might be naturally occurring, but I have a suspicion that they are from the seeds. (Mixed native seeds for shade that I broadcast spread, which is why I can’t be sure if they are from that or not.)

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Since you did sow some seed, label them cultivated. However, if they then multiply without your help, the next generation can then be considered wild.

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I agree, these are considered cultivated. Once they start to self sow out of your original plants, they are wild.

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For the uncertainty question, since I’ve dealt with the same thing: if I’m not sure if a plant is from native seeds I’ve sown or naturally occurring, I just leave a note to that effect in the notes field and mark it cultivated (or not) depending on what feels likelier to me. It gets hard to tell with seeds that can take a year or two to germinate.

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Agree with what others have written, and just noting that if an individual plant is cultivated, it’s always cultivated - age doesn’t matter.

But subsequent generations would be wild (assuming that humans aren’t actively caring for them)

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You may never know which plants are “wild”, due to seed dormancy. Or should we consider that they are all wild because you sowed them without much care? This wild/cultivated opposition is very tricky.

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on iNat is called Cultivated (Not Wild) Them’s the rules.

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i’m running into a similar issue with “wild vs cultivated” and similar terms. but it’s for a plant database i’m making for my own education and review, not for iNaturalist.

for non-iNaturalist classifications, could the native plants be called “wild type”? That way on my little plant template I can classify my plants as “wild type” if it’s a native or wild plant, and “cultivated” if it’s something that’s obviously been influenced by (bred into existence) humans, like broccoli or something. Or would “domesticated” be a better word for that?

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That would be cultivar (among the Not Wild on iNat). Something that doesn’t and didn’t exist in nature - but may well have escaped, and then become invasive. But you are free to name and define your 2 categories so they are meaningful to you.
Indigenous vs commonorgarden for my patch.

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