How to contribute

Contributions of any kind are welcome. Beginners and experts alike can help.

HexFlora is an open-source project that lives on GitHub. You can contribute in several ways, depending on your area of expertise

Contribute to HexFlora on iNaturalist

Download the iNaturalist app on your phone and join the HexFlora project. Make observations of plants in the Hex River Valley. Be sure to set the location (you can still keep it private). Suggest identities of the observations you or others have made. Optionally create an issue on GitHub (see below) with a link to your observation, requesting inclusion on HexFlora.

You can also reach out to me (daniepalm) on iNaturalist

Logging an issue on GitHub

If you have any information that you think can be useful to the HexFlora project, or a photograph of a detail of any species that is not yet covered by other photographs, or if you have spotted any mistakes from typos to inaccuraries, then please log an issue on GitHub:

  1. Visit https://github.com/palm86/hex_flora
  2. Select the "Issues" tab
  3. Click on "New issue"
  4. Enter a descriptive title and comment
  5. Add supporting information
    • Add attachments by clicking on "Attach files by dragging & dropping, selecting or pasting them."
    • Add links to external documents or observations on platforms such as iNaturalist.
    • Only add photographs or works to which you own the copyright. Please state the licence under which you share your work.
    • Please DO NOT share photos that are not your own work or that you have found on the internet.

Specific information that we are looking for include:

  • binomial/scientific/species names and their origins
  • photos of leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, seedlings, pests, parasites, pollinators, or any definitive plant parts
  • local common/vernacular names and their origins
  • locations at which the plants can be observed in the Hex
  • descriptions of defining features by which to identify the species
  • vegetation types in which the species thrives
  • seasonality - when is the specimen in flower or in fruit

Issues don't have to relate to only content. Please feel free to contribute to the design of this project and help to improve the underlying technical software aspects.

Discussing existing issues on GitHub

You can view existing issues on GitHub and provide any information that could lead to their resolution. Depending on the issue, you could provide local vernacular names, uses, locations, photographs, species names, etc. An issue could also point to an external source, such as an iNaturalist observation of an unidentified species. In such cases you could help to resolve the ticket by suggesting an identification on the external platform and by commenting on the issue to that effect.

Creating a pull request on GitHub (technical)

If enough information is available to resolve an issue, please fork the palm86/hex_flora repository on GitHub and create a pull request that incorporates the necessary changes. Please see the project README file for detailed information on how to contribute.