Tree ID Status November 2022

Unknowns are observations without any identification.
These trees people have not bothered to label as plants or dicots and have been rather put into the Tree project
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-id
where they are most usefully binned until someone (a tree expert or specialist, presumably) can ID them.

Quite honestly calling them Dicots or Flowering Plants or Trachyphytes is just a waste of time. It achieves nothing useful - if you find a tree that needs identification, rather add them to the Tree project.

Helping Identify trees.
There is no way of knowing which observations are trees until they are identified to either species level, or else added to the Tree Project.

You can search the trees needing identification here: - there are several levels:
Tip: add a place to the place box (it may say "southern Africa") to narrow down the options - work in your favourite areas first

• Needs ID - species level (just needig confirmation) in the tree project:
  Trees identified (in the project) but just needing confirmation for Research Grade:
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id&project_id=trees-of-southern-africa-id [ 1,450 observations]
  For a full list of southern African trees needing confirmation, please see here:
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id&verifiable=true&list_id=1471294 [ 38,500 observations]

• Identified to Family or genus, but needing a species level ID (only those in the tree project):
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=research%2Ccasual%2Cneeds_id&project_id=trees-of-southern-africa-id&lrank=subsection&hrank=family [ 180 observations]

• Unidentified at all (but usefully added to the tree project)
  Rudimentary IDs:
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=research%2Ccasual%2Cneeds_id&iconic_taxa=Plantae&project_id=trees-of-southern-africa-id&lrank=epifamily [ 730 observations]
  No identification at all:
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=research%2Ccasual%2Cneeds_id&iconic_taxa=unknown&project_id=trees-of-southern-africa-id [ 4,100 observations]

Numbers: (29 Nov 2022) in the Tree Atlas Project (total 11,700 observations).
Trees with no identification at all: 4,095 (35%)
Trees with no meaningful identification (above family): 731 (6%)
Trees to family: 27 (<1%)
Trees to genus: 154 (1%)
Trees to species needing confirmation: 1,450 (12%)
Trees Research Grade: 3,036 (26%)
Planted: 172 (1%)

Bottom Line.
If you see a tree that has no ID (or an ID above the family level), then it is better to add it to the Trees of southern Africa project, than to make a meaningless Plant/Dicot identification.

Posted on November 29, 2022 07:35 AM by tonyrebelo