Rehabilitation tools: iNaturalist

Are you a restoration practitioner looking to enhance your projects with native, locally adapted plants? In this video, we explore how to harness the power of iNaturalist—an invaluable citizen science platform—to identify and compile lists of native plants specific to your restoration site. Learn step-by-step how to use iNaturalist to: Discover native plant species in your area Gather reliable data from community observations Generate targeted plant lists for planting and restoration planning Ensure your projects support local biodiversity and ecosystem health Whether you're working on a small-scale revegetation or a large habitat restoration, sourcing local plants is crucial for success. Using iNaturalist makes this process accessible, accurate, and community-driven. Join us as we demonstrate practical tips to streamline your plant sourcing process and contribute to more sustainable, resilient ecosystems.

iNaturalist: Landscaping and rehabilitation tools

Written by Georgina van Biljon (Intaba Environmental Services), with input by Dr T Rebello and Dr P Holmes.

2025-10-07

iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/  is the recording and identification app for the natural world (plants, animals, fungi etc.). It is an open source platform, free of adverts and developed by a non-profit organisation supported by private funding and user donations. It is used by many people (often known as citizen scientists) and also conservationists, reserve managers and scientists owing to its research potential. It also provides useful information for landscaping and ecological restoration applications. There are nearly 4 million users of iNaturalist (iNat) with a total of 270 million observations worldwide, with 6.5 million observations by 48.5 thousand observers in southern Africa to date. 

Why is it such a useful tool and possibly more reliable than AI? When you take photo(s) of a plant or creature (with a location) and upload it onto iNat, there is an automated species identification tool (the computer vision model) which provides identification suggestions. This applies to any species with over 100 observations, as already identified iNat observations are used to train the identification tool.  Consequently all common species are readily identified.   For groups where species cannot easily be identified from photographs, a higher taxon level (genus or family) is suggested.  Scientific species names change from time to time, but iNat automatically updates name changes when they occur, and retains the old names for those who cannot keep up.  It also allows manual identification by common names, but this is not as reliable as these are not as vigorous as scientific names.  For example: ‘Taaibos’ is a common name for many species in the Searsia genus with over 111 species, so it is not possible to narrow this name to species level.

Observations on iNaturalist are classified as ‘casual’ (i.e., planted, not natural), ‘needs ID’, or ‘research grade’ based on the number of agreed identifications. All observations are open for other people to make comments and identifications. There are many specialists active on the site, so iNaturalist is a great way to get to know the community of people in any particular group, be it Dung Beetles, Flies or Orchids.  These specialists add value by confirming identifications and flagging new and undescribed species, making iNaturalist unique.

Applications for iNaturalist

Understanding our natural world, especially the identification of plants is key in landscaping and ecological restoration.

One can explore species’ distributions by displaying all observations on the map in iNaturalist, and one can focus into an area (e.g. West Coast, or Wellington or Waaihoek) or a group (e.g. Plants, or proteas or King Proteas) or a time (last year, in spring) by selecting filters.

If plants are well recorded in an area, one can assume they are adapted to those environments, and there is potential to understand its distribution, habitat, soil and climatic conditions that are needed for a plant to flourish.

Creation of projects: one can create a project for a specific location on iNat: for example, within the boundaries of a farm. Then take photos and upload these observations, iNaturalist will automatically include and summarize the data. This will provide a species list that can be used in local landscaping, restoration, marketing and eco-tourism purposes.

With regards to ecological restoration, one needs to know the distribution of locally indigenous species – those found nearby - in order to make a rigorous list for restoration work. iNat is the ideal tool to quickly compile such a list. For further information on ecological restoration principles visit - Society for Ecological Restoration www.ser.org > https://www.ser.org/page/SERStandards

Plant species lists for a specific location can also be developed through resources such as: National Vegetation Map of South Africa (https://www.sanbi.org/biodiversity/foundations/national-vegetation-map/. National VEGMAP have developed a citizen science project on iNaturalist to create a central place for photos that represent the vegetation types of South Africa. This is under Community> Projects search for VEGMAPhoto (s Afr) click add observation and add your photo under a selected vegetation type. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/vegmaphoto-s-afr/journal/16639-instructions

Bigger picture – contribute to science

iNaturalist observations contribute to research hosted on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) which tracks observations, new discoveries and changes over time that can be linked to climate change, spread of alien invasives and changing land use practices.  

One can also participate in the City Nature Challenge https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/ during April, or the Great Southern Bioblitz in spring. 

The City Nature Challenge in 2025 resulted in 3.2 Million observations of 73 thousand species by 106 thousand people over 4 days (25-28 April) from 669 cities in 62 countries.

Organisations that use iNaturalist in South Africa include CREW (Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers - a network of volunteer based botanists – and SANPARKS, Cape Nature, Birldlife, EWT, SANBI, NCC, and it is a requirement that all Environmental Impact Assessments must record their species on iNaturalist.

So what are you waiting for?  iNaturalist is only as good as we make it.  By adding more observations and identifications we improve the database for scientists, horticulturalist, landscapers, and Citizen Scientists – that is you!