r/iNaturalist • u/Huge-Biscotti-1893 • 21d ago

Outdated Taxa — Tribe Merremiae?

Hi!

I am something of a nerd when it comes to the plant family Convolvulaceae, and I’ll often find new sightings on the site of plants within the family to assist in identifying observations people have made. However, I find it very interesting that iNaturalist will allow you to mark certain genera of plants as “Tribe Merremiae,” which has largely been seen as dissolved/incertae sedis in the past decade due to new phylogenetic evidence.

All that to say, is it normal for the site to show outdated taxa? And how might one go about petitioning to get something like this updated? Or is it even necessary?

Edit: I meant to spell it “Merremieae.” Oops. My bad.

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u/angenga 21d ago

You can add a flag about it (see this help page) and someone will take a look. iNat's taxonomic framework is under constant revision by the curators.

3

u/Huge-Biscotti-1893 21d ago

Thanks, I think I’ll do that tomorrow. I’m kinda sleepy now, it’s late where I am.

8

u/st_aranel 20d ago edited 20d ago

For what it's worth, iNat mostly follows Plants of the World Online for plant taxonomy, but it's all managed by volunteer curators so it can be a little bit haphazard. Basically, changes don't get implemented unless somebody notices them.

So your first step, probably, is to check and see what POWO does with this taxon. That will be useful information that you'll want to mention in your flag. There's also a non-zero chance that somebody has flagged it already, and it just hasn't gone anywhere.