Check out this example of an effort fueled by community science: Identifying native jewelweeds using leaf traits and morphometrics

Michelle is an undergraduate student at UW-Madison studying Conservation Biology and Data Science who grew up identifying plants with the app Picture This.

Now, she uses iNaturalist to connect with people who have seen Impatiens capensis and Impatiens pallida, which are native jewelweeds whose flowers only bloom during a few weeks of the year. Michelle seeks to use these samples, collected from the US & Canada, to explore leaf shape and color metrics as indicators of species.