Heads up: Some or all of the identifications affected by
this split may have been replaced with identifications of 
Spiraea. This
happens when we can't automatically assign an identification to one of the
output taxa.
Review identifications of Spiraea betulifolia 84724
Spiraea. This
happens when we can't automatically assign an identification to one of the
output taxa.
Review identifications of Spiraea betulifolia 84724
Taxonomic Split 129016
(Committed on 2023-08-08)
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split into |
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Comments
@birdwhisperer Unfortunately, I can't speak definitively to anything beyond the S. betulifolia in northwestern North America that should become S. lucida. I think some of the non-Appalachian eastern US reports are indeed other species of Spiraea, like S. japonica, which is common in cultivation, but obviously I haven't checked every single one. Many of the ones I did check are very clearly not even Spiraea. I think it is fine to bump them to genus. Thank you for your help with this complex split.
@birdwhisperer I think we are good to commit this change. If you have reservations about elevating too many observations to genus level, is there a way to leave them at the species level?
@kierandh @bouteloua This split is absolutely needed but might release some chaos, so anything to help will be appreciated.
Summary: Running a pre-split check, the change is definitely necessary since out of 7,149 identifications, 5,479 need to be transferred to S. lucida, and 342 to S. corymbosa. But I can't explain all the European or non-Appalachian eastern US reports, so that leaves us with 1207 ids that get bumped to genus if we commit. In the long run, it's better to have 1207 ids reelevated than have 5479 misapplied ids, but we should figure out how to shrink the former number.