The Weed Entry application
lets you enter and edit an observation of a non-native wild plant.
To use the application, you need to be registered
as a contributor.
To enter a new record, press the button.
Click on the map to indicate the location .
Type in the first few letters of the scientific name of the plant.
After three letters, a list of matching genera will appear.
You can choose the genus from the list, and then type in a few letters
of the species, or just keep typing.
Choose a value for Ownership,
indicating your best determination of who owns the land.
Enter an observation date in the form 2014-12-31,
or press the today link, or press the calendar link
to choose the date from a calendar.
Enter a value for Infested Area and Canopy Closure.
The rest of the fields are optional, and explained below.
When you are finished, press the button at the top.
If you already have coordinates,
check
Specify location by coordinates.
If you have decimal lat/long coordinates,
enter them, and press .
If you have UTM coordinates, press
UTM Coordinates,
enter the Zone, Easting and Northing,
and press .
2012 September 15:
Coordinate conversion between decimal lat/long and UTM is now much more reliable thanks to
Jason Ji and
the
JCoord
package by J. Stott.
Press SHAPE at the top to
enter a line or polygon describing the extent of the plant population
you are reporting. The shape drawing panel opens in the top
right of the page. Choose polygon or line, then press .
At this point, each click on the map becomes a vertex of
the shape you are drawing. (Dragging the map has no effect on the shape.)
Press when you are done.
Press if you need to add more vertices,
or delete vertices, or move vertices.
Any observation you enter with this application will immediately appear in the
My Observations
application.
if you set Access by other users to public,
then other Calflora users will also be able to find
and view your observation record
with the various search tools.
FIELDS
Access by other users
When a record is published,
other Calflora users can see it.
When a record is unpublished,
nobody can see it except the person who
entered it.
Some contributors choose to work on
certain records over time in an unpublished
state, and then publish those records only when they are ready.
Records submitted via the upload application or the
phone application arrive into the database in
an unpublished state, and must be explicitly published
by the person responsible before other users can
see them.
Scientific Name
The scientific name of the plant observed.
Typeahead is enabled for typical invasive plants --
type the first few letters, then choose the
name from the popup list.
Note that genus is capitalized. For instance:
Acacia dealbata
This field will accept only the full scientific name of a plant
already in the database,
or the word unknown.
If you have alternate scientific names or other notes,
please put them in the Comments field.
If you wish to enter the scientific name of a plant
that is not yet in the database (for instance, a new weed),
put a * (star) just in front of the plant name,
as the first character in the field.
You can also use * (star) to enter genus-only names.
For instance, to indicate some plant in the genus Acacia, enter:
*Acacia
Common Name
The common name of the plant observed.
Typeahead is enabled for typical invasive plants --
type the first few letters, then choose the
name from the popup list.
Note that Common Name is for plant lookup only,
and is not stored on the observation record.
Observation Date
Date the plant was observed,
in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
For example, 2009-01-15.
Press today for today's date.
Press calendar to choose the date from a calendar.
Habitat
The primary habitat type infested by the weed
at this location.
Forest: Tree-dominated, generally with a closed canopy (e.g., redwood forest, eucalyptus grove)
Open Woodland: Tree-dominated, but with open areas between the trees (e.g., oak woodland)
Scrub/Shrubland: Shrub-dominated, with few or no trees (e.g., coastal scrub, chaparral)
Grassland / Open Field: Grass-dominated, with few to no shrubs or trees
Stream bank / bed: The banks or dried bed of a stream, creek or river
Wetland: Herbaceous-plant-dominated, with standing water at least part of the year and wetland indicator plants (e.g., cattails, rushes, pickleweed marsh, vernal pool)
Open Water: Pond, lake, river, estuary, etc.
Beach / Dune: Generally some open sand, or there would be if not infested with iceplant or European beachgrass
Planted (Lawn, crop, etc.): An area purposely planted for agricultural, recreational or ornamental use.
Infested Area
The area of ground covered by the weed if there were no spaces between the plants.
(This area can be expressed in acres, hectares,
square feet or square meters.)
1 Acre
43,560 square feet
4,840 square yards
4,047 square meters
0.4 hectares
1 Hectare
107,639 square feet
11,960 square yards
10,000 square meters
2.47 acres
Gross Area
The area of ground covered by the weed, if you drew an imaginary line around the outer boundary of the infestation.
(This area can be expressed in acres, hectares,
square feet or square meters.)
Canopy Closure (AKA Percent Cover)
If you drew an imaginary line around the outer boundary of the infestation,
the Canopy Closure is the amount of ground actually covered by the plant, expressed as a percent.
0
absent
0 - 1
trace
1 - 5
5 - 25
25 - 50
50 - 75
75 - 95
95 - 100
Phenology
The life stage of the plant (or majority of plants in the infestation) at time of observation.
Bolting: When the flowering stalk begins to shoot up in plants with a basal rosette of leaves (thistles or mustards, for example)
Flowering: In bud or flower
Fruiting: Setting seed or fruit
Dead / skeleton: Dried/dead plant or dormant perennial
Leafing out: Producing new leaves (for deciduous perennial plants such as tree of heaven)
Mature: A perennial plant NOT in one of the above stages
Distribution
The distribution of the plant across the landscape.
Ownership
The land owner, manager, or steward. If an infestation covers land with multiple owners, please choose the one with the most infested land. For infestations on private land, please have the landowner's permission
Herbarium
If a specimen was collected,
the name of the herbarium where it is stored.
Location Description
A brief description of where the weed is. Please include landmarks and/or directions to the site.
Comments
Anything else you would like to report about the weed or site, such as associated plant species.
Latitude and Longitude
The center of the infestation in
decimal latitude and longitude,
NAD83 datum (WGS84).
(This datum is available on most GPS units
and used by some recent maps.)
Observer
The person who observed the infestation.
If you are adding an observation,
the observer will be yourself.
Source
For records added through this application,
the value of Source is the institution
with which the Observer is
affiliated, if any.
If the Observer is affiliated with
the Bay Area Early Detection Network,
the value of Source should include "BAEDN."
For other records, the Source
is the name of the institution which contributed
the record to Calflora.
Collection
Use this field to
divide your records up into various collections.
Or, simply include search terms in the value of this field
that will make it possible to categorize records later.
For instance, if this record is part of a particular
data collection project, put the name of the project here
(e.g. Neighborhood annual weeds, Spring 2013).
Or, put good photo as the value of this field for all
of your records that have particularly good photos;
then you can search for them later.
Location Accuracy
An estimate of the accuracy of the location coordinates,
expressed as an area in square meters.
For instance, if the location accuracy is set to 100 square meters,
then the idea is that the real point is somewhere within
that 100 square meter area.
When you specify location by picking a point on the map,
location accuracy depends on the zoom level of the map
when the record is first entered.
When GPS equipment is used to find a point, the location
accuracy will depend on the quality of the equipment,
conditions at the time the point was taken,
as well as any methods employed to correct or
verify the coordinates.
To specify location accuracy, press the Specify link.
In the panel that opens, you can choose an accuracy range,
such as 100 square meters.
Or, you can enter the radius of a circle around the point,
and calculate location accuracy as the area of that circle.
Radius
Area
10 Meters
314 Square Meters
0.07763 Acres
1 Kilometer
3,141,593 Square Meters
776 Acres
1 Mile
8,136,688
Square Meters
2011 Acres
Number of Plants
Either an estimated range of the
number of plants at this location, or an exact count.
If you know the exact count, please
enter it by clicking in the text box and typing over the value.
Otherwise, choose a range from the drop down list.
Special values:
1: exactly one plant.
0: no plants; absent.
1+: at least one plant. This is the default value for older records.
SHAPE at the top to
enter a line or polygon describing the extent of the plant population
you are reporting. The shape drawing panel opens in the top
right of the page. Choose polygon or line, then press .
At this point, each click on the map becomes a vertex of
the shape you are drawing. (Dragging the map has no effect on the shape.)
Press when you are done.
Press if you need to add more vertices,
or delete vertices, or move vertices.
.
Type in the first few letters of the scientific name of the plant.
After three letters, a list of matching genera will appear.
You can choose the genus from the list, and then type in a few letters
of the species, or just keep typing.