For fun, I tried to see what would happen to photograph trees while driving along the roadside. Since I dont know trees, I added them to the https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-id project
At present the status of these are:

June 2021 Kruger: mainly gravel speed 60km/h - 636 observations.

Status after 18 months

• 204 No ID (32%)
• 182 Plants (29%)
• 18 Dicots [almost all these "plants" are dicots]
• 5 Family-Tribe
• 46 Genus (7%)
• 181 Species (28%) - 169 RG (27%)

Kruger has relatively many active tree identifiers working in the lowveld.
@wynand_uys gave some useful ideas for improving the photographs (camera speeds, use oncoming trees, etc.).

August 2022 Caprivi tarred road 100km/h - 2,307 observations (lots of driving!)

Diverse: lots of tree species. Status after 4 months - not many tree specialists active on iNaturalist in this area.

• 2,035 No ID (88%)
• 65 Plants (3%)
• 10 Dicots [almost all these "plants" are dicots]
• 5 Family-Tribe
• 65 Genus (3%)
• 110 Species (5%) - 84 RG (4%)

August 2022 Kalahari (Botswana & Namibia) varied roads 100km/h - 1,822 observations (lots of driving!)

Thornveld: not so diverse. Status after 4 months - not many tree specialists active on iNaturalist in this area.

• 1,489 No ID (82%)
• 5 Plants (3%)
• 8 Dicots [almost all these "plants" are dicots]
• 17 Family-Tribe
• 31 Genus (2%)
• 272 Species (15%) - 163 RG (9%)

So all in all: not very fruitful, although in none of the above where people specifically approached to help identify the species. This has been entirely passive.

The question is - Is it worth it?
Want to help with IDs - i.e to Family, Genus or Species? Please click:

• Kruger
• Caprivi
• Kalahari

We have revised the "National" Tree project.

Please join

it at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-list

.
.
If you had bookmarked this original ID project for your easy use, please note its change in title to
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-id
(previously it lacked the 'id" suffix)

The two projects are complimentary.

The ID project is for observations of trees

• that need an ID - please put any observation of a tree that needs an ID here.
• that specialists can help ID - please help us ID these.

• a temporary parking for trees identified above species level.
  Note: observations are retained for statistics, please use the tools to access those needing ID - see the links in the project description.

The LIST project is to collect trees

• that have been identified to species
• for investigating distributions and localities
• for providing summaries and statistics on our trees

Please enjoy.
Any requests or suggestions welcome in comments below.

@jeanphilippeb, - who has to have earned our undying gratitude: many thanks!!!!! has been playing at finding lost tree observations that have never been identified - https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/jeanphilippeb/73398-draft-for-creating-projects-for-unknown-observations

This is no mean task! It uses the Ai, and our national tree list, and several tricks to generate lists of observations that are probably trees.
(Unfortunately, i have not been able to convince him to add the AI ID as an identification or as a field, but in time we might get there. )

These observations can be found here:
Identifications by the AI that are from the national tree list:
• 1. (No ID yet + Not in project + c.v. suggestions >20 matching + trees s Afr).
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/unknown-trees-of-southern-africa-1
• 2. (No ID yet + Not in project + No not-tree IDs > 20 + >8 seen nearby of which <2 are not-tree).
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/unknown-trees-of-southern-africa-2

I have no automated procedure for removing identified observations (but it is feasible), in order to spare ressources (1 API request / observation to remove) and also because we could wish to do future statistics (such as who has used the project for identifying).
Moreover, if we add also Plantae/.../Dicots identified observations to the project(s), removing identified observations could be conflicting.

I suggest to help people by providing a link with identified=false (or equivalent), as you did already.

As some of these are being identified, it makes sense to to use the ID tool as such:
Please read the notes: the AI will identify observations as trees if trees are in the picture, but the observation may be for something more obscure. Please dont ID grasses or insects as trees just because the AI says that there are trees in the pictures.
• For trees by AI: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&verifiable=any&project_id=152985&captive=false&place_id=any
this is for wild only, switch off this option to get planted trees as well
(or for captive only: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual&verifiable=any&project_id=152985&captive=true&place_id=any )

• For possible trees by AI: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&verifiable=any&project_id=152974&captive=false

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.

Need an ID for a tree?
Trees are not a good taxonomic group. But most people can identify a tree as a tree, even if they dont have a clue as to what class, family, genus or species it is.
So if you have a tree that needs an ID, just add this project to your observation (no need to add any identification if you do so, just leave the ID blank when adding your observations).

If you are able to help us ID trees (let us face it: there are experts, specialists, enthusiasts and gardeners who know their trees backwards, and field guides, apps and articles devoted to trees), then this link will open up the identification tool to help you manage the process (without flooding you with trees that have already been identified). Click on and bookmark these links:
(first time identifiers)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?reviewed=any&quality_grade=needs_id%2Ccasual&project_id=trees-of-southern-africa-id
(regular identifiers)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Ccasual&project_id=trees-of-southern-africa-id
(a quick tutorial on using the iNat ID curatorial tool is here: https://vimeo.com/246153496)

Thanks for your help

If you want the functionality of a full tree collection project - please use this link:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?list_id=1471294