Content of review 1, reviewed on January 06, 2021
The manuscript “The Flora Incognita app – interactive plant species identification” introduces a mobile app, Flora Incognita, to engage citizens, botanists among others, via Android, IOS, and Harmony OS devices, to identify plant species. The authors presented the architecture and the work flow of the app and discuss its importance. The Flora Incognita app serves as another exemplar project that could potentially benefit the community of conservation and biodiversity study, but I did not see what is innovative and original in this manuscript. In my opinion, the manuscript should include i) comparison between similar app, and ii) evaluation of the mobile app, in terms of number and structure of participants and species searched.
Some comments:
1. Abstract: What is the main interest of “map of observations”?
2. A paragraph that discusses the differences between this app and other currently available will be useful.
3. Please make sure that all abbreviations are correctly enounced (lines 68 and 83).
4. Figure 1 is not referenced in the text.
5. The species and their characterization (by growth form, genus, etc.) should be included in the Methods.
6. The Flora Incognita does not allow to identify plants of the genera Taraxacum, Sorbus, Rubus, Pilosella, Hieraclum and Oenothera. Is there any way to solve this limitation?
7. What are the main reasons associated with incorrect identification of plant species? How can authors improve the accuracy of species identification? (line 139)
8. The overall performance of this mobile app, after two years of use, should be presented and discussed.
9. A paragraph comparing the performance of this app and other mobile app will be useful (line 140).
10. A reference to the European regulation on invasive species is missing (line 154).
11. How the data captured through this mobile app can be integrated in “invasive species management”? This mobile app only allows the identification of invasive plant species and does not characterize the invaded area. How can you transpose this information to the managers? The same concerns are applied to the “phenological monitoring”. This type of studies involves a regular monitoring of phenological events, in the same geographical area in order to avoid environmental differences. Is there any study with this information?
12. Please make sure that all references meet the assumptions of the journal. For example, the way in which some of the book references or journal title are cited is incorrect. Please verify all of them.
Source
© 2021 the Reviewer.
Content of review 2, reviewed on February 18, 2021
The manuscript has been greatly improved. The major concerns made in the first review have been corrected and now I suggest that the manuscript can be considered for publication.
Source
© 2021 the Reviewer.
References
Patrick, M., David, B., Michael, R., Marco, S., Christian, W. H., Alice, D., Jana, W. 2021. The Flora Incognita app - Interactive plant species identification. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.