09 February, 2022

Nevada botanist position open!

To all my iNaturalist followers, if you know anyone who would be a good fit for the next Supervisory Botanist at the Nevada Division of Natural Heritage, please make sure they know about the following link, which closes March 11:

https://nv.jobs2web.com/job-invite/7268/

After 31 years, I will be retiring from the position in two months. It's been a great ride, and I envy whoever is next!

And of course I am only retiring from state service, not from botany! Botanists are for life.

Posted on 09 February, 2022 19:35 by jdmore jdmore | 8 comments | Leave a comment

10 September, 2021

Some favorite third-party iNaturalist tools

Starting with one tool for now, and will add more (mostly curatorial in nature).
Contents:
Print-ready Observations
Curatorial Tools


PRINT-READY OBSERVATIONS

Click on
https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_print_friendly_obs.html
to bring up the printing utility, and read the following:

Usage Notes:

  • After a query, to start a new search, refresh the page with your browser first. This reactivates the Query button.
  • To get the various ID values needed, first find the observation(s) you want using the Filters in Explore. The needed ID values will then be part of the URL in the address bar of the Explore results. If it is a single observation, you can just use the observation number (ID) before the "?" in the URL. Unneeded IDs can be left blank.
  • Check/Uncheck the contents to print. For my usage, I
    CHECK: Identifications and Comments; Photos; Sounds; Annotations; Observation Fields; Data Quality Assessments; Map (detail)
    UNCHECK: Tags; Projects; Faves; Map (thumbnail)

  • Click Query to display the results to be printed. To make adjustments to the query, refresh your browser first.
  • Before printing, you can Zoom in or out on any or all of the result maps, and your zoom levels will be preserved in the printed results.
  • After you have the results you want, use your browser's Print function to send to a printer or PDF. There will be a page break between each observation.
  • Note the Observation License line (4th from top) and be sure your usage respects the observer's copyright level.
  • Note the Observation/Taxon Geoprivacy line just above the map. If either or both say obscured or private, the coordinates on and below the map will not be correct, even if you have permission to see the true coordinates (your own observation, trusted by another user individually or in a project, or network node administrator). There will also be a large Accuracy value (= error radius). You will need to retrieve the true coordinates and accuracy value separately, via whatever other view in iNaturalist allows you to see them, or by contacting the observer directly to see if they are willing to share them.
  • Whatever you print is only a snapshot in time. Observations are living records that can be updated by the iNaturalist community indefinitely.

Source: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/tool-for-making-observations-printer-friendly/4513/16


CURATORIAL TOOLS

coming soon...

Posted on 10 September, 2021 21:11 by jdmore jdmore | 0 comments | Leave a comment

21 September, 2020

Plant genus Lasiopogon Cass. (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) new to North America

This is one of the many reasons I love iNaturalist.

About 4 years ago I started noticing some unusual "Gnaphalium palustre" observations from southern Arizona (plus one so far from southern California). I gave them that identification as a "best fit," but with reservations often expressed in the comments. [EDIT 3/2022: the original southern California suspect turns out to be Gamochaeta stagnalis, but now there is a new and better candidate.]

Seeing another one yesterday was my last straw, and I decided to pull out all stops to see if a better name could be found for these plants. It was increasingly apparent that these plants are not Gnaphalium palustre, nor anything else known in the Arizona or California floras.

So what was my first go-to for doing further research? Why, iNaturalist of course! Using the Compare feature on the most recent observation, I first looked through all the Asteraceae tribe Gnaphalieae observed or listed for North America, doing Google image searches for taxa that didn't have photos in iNaturalist. (And of course, also taking the iNaturalist photos with the appropriate grain of salt too.) Nothing else in North America was close to a match.

Next, knowing where Gnaphalieae tend to be more diverse, I did the same search in Australia. Still nothing. Next was Africa. Bingo! Some iNaturalist photos associated with Lasiopogon observations from southern Africa showed exactly the same distinctive head apices I had been noticing in the North American observations, and the rest of the plants were matching also.

The relevant North American observations are now here -- if the page comes up blank, wait a few moments for it to populate. It's using a special URL that slows it down. (Caution all, when adding identifications, it's easy to accidentally add the fly genus Lasiopogon instead of the plant genus!)

@ngb
@tonyrebelo
@botaneek
@fragmansapir
@kai_schablewski

can you have a look through the observations linked in the paragraph above, and see if it's possible to identify the species for any of them? Based on existing geographic range, the most likely candidate for introduction to North America would be Lasiopogon muscoides. The RG Lasiopogon observations on iNaturalist, however, seem to show two different things under this name, one with shorter, fuzzier, and denser leaves than the other (the other looking more like the North American plants). And there is also a Lasiopogon brachypterus observation looking pretty similar to the North American plants.

At least judging from the records on SEINet and the California Consortium, no North American specimens have yet been identified as Lasiopogon. [UPDATE 2020-10-15: two specimens have now been uncovered at ASU.] Considering that, plus the fact that iNaturalist observations didn't start showing up until about 4 years ago, and that they are concentrated in disturbed habitats around the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas, suggests that this might be a fairly recent introduction (and possibly the first in the Western Hemisphere). If so, it has already spread pretty rapidly. But there could also be older records that have been fooling North American plant taxonomists until now.

In any case, there are likely Lasiopogon specimens in Arizona and other herbaria at this point that are misidentified as Gnaphalium or other Gnaphalieae. And there are likely more iNat observations of it waiting to be surfaced, most likely here, and possibly a few here and here. Heads up @aspidoscelis @dhwilken @gentilcore @jrebman @rojosmojo @sabra2 @stevejones -- and please @ tag (in a comment below) any other inatters who work with regional herbaria, or could help identify Lasiopogon to species level.

UPDATE 8 April 2022: new report now published for Lasiopogon glomerulatus.

Posted on 21 September, 2020 00:16 by jdmore jdmore | 22 comments | Leave a comment

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