Flag for Taxon: Black Morel (Morchella elata)
| Flagger | Content Author | Content | Reason | Flag Created | Resolved by | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| jameskm | Black Morel (Morchella elata) |
this is a name of uncertain application. |
Mar. 31, 2020 00:37:09 +0000 | jameskm |
Swapped into higher section. |
Comments
Morchella elata isn’t a currently used species name. Having it on here right now is just leading to many incorrect identifications. Until the real Morchella elata is recollected in the area it was described and the name can be properly used it should be considered invalid. Section Distantes could be added to be used for species of unknown species with the section.
Inactivating it with no explanation and leaving >150 observations in limbo is not a good option, either.
I have added all three sections currently used in Morchella taxonomy, and sorted out the species into them, making some swaps, and adding missing species in current use/with published sequences. There are another three valid species of uncertain application that could not be sorted into the established sections.
The options should be either to leave it as is (as you have said, this is confusing and unhelpful) or to swap it into section Distantes, which it should mean anyway since it has been used to refer to multiple species in the past decade. We can't just inactivate a species used for nearly 400 IDs for no reason. I have drafted a swap here: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxon_changes/74197, with an explanation and a reference.
Probably it should just be swapped into section Distantes, as it is a name used somewhat indiscriminately to refer to these. On the other hand, it refers to a species that does occur in this section, and will probably eventually be taken up for one of them, once the application is fixed, so some identifications may be right.