Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Stub to Start drive

WikiProject Plants

This page in a nutshell: The WikiProject Plants Stub-to-Start Drive is a project event to upgrade plant species articles from Stub to Start. This is the how-to and the main page for the drive.

Welcome to the WikiProject Plants Stub-to-Start Drive! This drive is an event of the Wikipedia Plants project. Its purpose is to quickly and minimally upgrade species Stub-class articles to Start-class by following a straightforward process described here. Stub-class articles are edited to meet the Plants project criteria for a taxon Start-class article, and we commit to accurately sourcing and citing existing information (or minimally, marking it with inline cleanup tags for review later), and sourcing and citing our own edits. During this drive, we intentionally do not upgrade articles to the level of detail of a C-class or above; however, if some of that detail exists in the article, we do not remove it.

Participants can work on their choice of articles. There is no expectation of how many will be upgraded during the drive, and each of us can work on the number of articles we choose. Other editing during the drive is limited only by the commitment that you will avoid creating additional Stub-class articles that are within the scope of the Plants project.

Your coordinator is Eewilson.

During the Stub-to-Start Drive...

• DO keep it simple.
• DON'T create more articles of any quality.^[i]
• DO cite sources with inline citations.
• DON'T try for a Did you know (DYK).^[ii]
• DO use inline cleanup tags where appropriate.
• DON'T strive for perfection.
• DO add and keep red links.

You can use the following link to pull up the list of all of the Stub-class articles in the Plants project.

https://wp1.openzim.org/#/project/Plant/articles?quality=Stub-Class

If you wish to find articles of a particular genus, click on "Filter by article name", type in the genus name (no leading or trailing spaces, case-sensitive), for example, Allium, Clematis, Solidago, etc., and it will return a list of Stub-class articles with that string in the title.

See section Sign-up: participants and their chosen articles for information on how to sign up for this drive.

You may invite editors to participate in the drive by placing a Stub-to-Start drive invitation on their talk pages via substitution.

You may add the Stub-to-Start drive user box or (and!) Ethmostigmus's adorable user box to your user page to show off the drive, and use the Stub-to-Start drive progress user box to brag about how many species articles you have upgraded so far.

We use the assessment guidelines given at Template:Grading scheme and Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Assessment § Taxon-specific quality guidelines to determine if an article is of Start-class quality. The Start-class guidelines are listed in § Step 10: confirm article contents. For direction, we also refer to Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants § Article advice and Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Template.

Using a browser, log in to your account.^[iii]

In order to validate a species name or determine if one is a taxonomic synonym of an accepted name, use the binomial and the author citation. The unique botanical name consists of both of these, in that order. There have been situations where identical binomials with different authors have been defined to describe different species; thus, both parts are needed. Use the name of the article and the authority (author citation) within the article to determine if it is of a correct and accepted species name. Use the following databases depending on the category.

• For ferns and lycophytes, use World Ferns (a part of World Plants) at https://www.worldplants.de/world-ferns/ferns-and-lycophytes-list.
  • To cite this database, use {{Cite WF}}.
• For the remaining vascular plants (not ferns or lycophytes), use Plants of the World Online (POWO) at https://powo.science.kew.org/.
  • To cite this database, use {{Cite POWO}}.
• For algae, use AlgaeBase at https://www.algaebase.org/.
  • To cite this database for a species, use {{AlgaeBase species}}.
• For bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts), use World Flora Online (WFO) at https://wfoplantlist.org/ or The Bryophyte Nomenclator [Bryonames] (https://www.bryonames.org).
  • To cite World Flora Online, use {{Cite WFO}}.
  • To cite Bryonames, use {{Cite bryonames}}.

Steps:

• If it is a correct, accepted name, compare the authorities in the |authority= param of the Speciesbox to those from the source.
  • If the authorities match, proceed to § Step 2: study the article.
  • If the authorities do not match, describe the situation in a new topic on the article talk page, and in a new topic on the Plants project talk page (request input and provide a link to the topic on the article talk page).
• If it is a synonym of a currently valid taxon, and that taxon has an article, the two articles can be merged. Follow the instructions on that page.
• If it is a synonym of a currently valid taxon, and that taxon does not have an article, request that the article be moved. Take the following steps.
  1. Create a redirect named with the new (upcoming) article name. Have it point to the existing article. Include in it the appropriate redirect categories as described in in the Plants project redirects categorization section.
  2. Create a new topic on the existing article's talk page, leaving the topic title blank. A bot will fill this in. Add template {{Requested move}} by substituting it in this format, {{subst:Requested move}}, and including the following parameters.
     • |new1=<<new article name>>
     • |reason=Moving taxonomic synonym to accepted name of taxon. You can either add a more detailed explanation or reasoning in this parameter, or after saving the talk page, edit the section and include more detail there.
     • |talk=yes
  3. Notify the Plants project by placing the following on the project talk page in a new section. Change the example parameter values with what is appropriate for your situation. Use {{RM notice}}.
     • {{subst:RM notice|existing page|new page|talk=existing page talk page|section=section on talk page}}

If the move is successful, modify the newly named article in order to keep it consistent with the new taxon name, including adjusting the values in the Speciesbox, then proceed to § Step 2: study the article only if the moved Stub-class article is still a species article.

• If it is not a synonym of a currently valid taxon, and you cannot find any evidence that it is a currently accepted species name, then the stub article can be considered for deletion. Propose the article be deleted then proceed with your next article.

Familiarize yourself with the article as it appears in its Stub-class form. If you find something that needs clean-up or that you wish to check, don't hesitate to do it. Alternatively, you can tag it with {{Citation needed}}, {{Clarify}}, or other inline cleanup tags as applies. You may even be able to resolve one or more tags while upgrading the article, or you can deal with them at another time.

• Check the grammar and spelling, correcting if necessary.
• Check the existing sources in the article for dead URLs. If a URL is dead, attempt to correct it by checking for an archived copy, often using the Wayback Machine. If you find an archived copy with the appropriate content, add that link to the source citation. See Help:Using the Wayback Machine for instructions. If it truly is dead with no archive, tag it with {{Dead link}}.
• If a web source is out of date, update the article with the information from the current version of the source or look for an archived copy as directed in the previous bullet point.
• Mark bare URLs with the appropriate bare URL cleanup tags ({{Bare URL inline}} or another, as appropriate).
  • Helpful, but optional: change bare URLs to the appropriate citation format using citation templates.
• Mark plain text sources with tag {{Full citation needed}}.

If {{Short description}} is not at the very top of the article, add it. There is an informational page Wikipedia:Short description (WP:SDESC) which gives suggested wording for an organism article at Wikipedia:Short description § Examples (WP:SDEXAMPLES). A long-standing PLANTS project practice has been to use the scientific name of the family in the short description, such as "Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae". This contradicts WP:SDESC.

From WP:SDEXAMPLES:

"[type of organism] of [common name or description]" (Examples: "Species of moth", "Group of flowering plants", "Extinct group of molluscs")... Do not include family name or other technical taxonomic terms.

On the same page, from WP:SDAVOID:

"avoid jargon, and use simple, readily comprehensible terms that do not require pre-existing detailed knowledge of the subject"

It is also suggested at WP:SDSHORT (aka, WP:SDFORMAT, WP:SD40) to keep the short description short, a rule of thumb being no more than 40 characters.

Based on these suggestions from WP:SDESC, use a common name of the family, if there is one, as shown here:

{{Short description|Species of KINDOFPLANT in family COMMONNAME}}

where "KINDOFPLANT" is "plant", "fern", "vine", "shrub", "tree", "lichen", "moss", "green algae", "liverwort", "hornwort", etc., and "COMMONNAME" is a well known common name of the family, such as aster family, St. John's-wort family, plantain family, etc., or leave off "in family COMMONNAME" altogether, as so:

{{Short description|Species of KINDOFPLANT}}

A one paragraph lead section will probably suffice for a Start-class species article. Standard elements of a species lead are given in this section.

The first two sentences of a plant species article are usually standardized to contain the following information, often in this order:

1. Species name, bolded (consider using template {{Strong}}) and italicized
2. Former species name (if applicable), if notable (e.g., it was used for an extended period), not bolded, italicized and in parentheses "(formerly OTHERSPECIESNAME)"
3. Lifespan, Wikilinked (perennial, annual, biennial)
4. Growth/habit, Wikilinked (herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plant, woody plant, fern, vine, shrub, tree, lichen, moss, green algae, etc.)
5. Taxonomic family, Wikilinked (in the Asteraceae family)
6. Nativity, the location, Wikilinked if MOS:OVERLINK does not apply (native to <<location>>, endemic to <<location>>)
7. Common name(s), if applicable, with name(s) also bolded (or with {{Strong}}) but not italicized.

{{Strong|''Symphyotrichum pilosum''}} (formerly ''Aster pilosus'') is a [[Perennial plant|perennial]], [[Herbaceous plant|herbaceous]], [[flowering plant]] in the [[Asteraceae]] [[Family (biology)|family]] [[Native species|native]] to central and eastern North America. It has [[common name]]s of {{Strong|hairy white oldfield aster}} and {{Strong|frost aster}}.

{{Strong|''Symphyotrichum molle''}} (formerly ''Aster mollis'') is a [[species]] of flowering plant in the aster [[Family (botany)|family]] ([[Asteraceae]]) [[endemic]] to the [[Bighorn Mountains]] of [[Montana]] and [[Wyoming]] in the United States. Its [[common name]] is  {{Strong|soft aster}}, and it is a [[Perennial plant|perennial]], [[herbaceous]] plant that ranges from {{Convert|30|to|60|cm|in|0|abbr=off|sp=us}} in height.

For more information about lead sections in Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section.

Optional Speciesbox information for Start-class

There is some Speciesbox information you can intentionally postpone during this drive. However, if optional items are in the article, these will need to be verified, corrected (if applicable), and the proper source(s) cited (if applicable). Unsourced optional statements of fact can be tagged inline with {{Citation needed}}.

Items in the {{Speciesbox}} need source citations, and the following elements, if used, require citations to reliable sources.^[iv]

• Authority: |authority= – after the author abbreviations, append a source citation
• Conservation statuses: |status_ref= and |status2_ref=
• Subdivisions: |subdivision_ref=
• Synonyms: |synonyms_ref=
• Image captions: If they state facts requiring a source, citations should be placed within the text of the caption after the statement: |image_caption= and |image2_caption=.
• Range map captions: The citation(s) for the source of the information on the range map should be placed within the |range_map_caption= parameter.

Obtain binomial names and author citations from a reliable secondary source as listed in § Step 1: validate species name.

In botany, a species binomial name^[v] contains the genus name in sentence case followed by the species name in all lowercase. The species binomial is italicized, as shown here:

Epilobium coloratum

Each author has a unique abbreviation for use within an author citation of a botanical name called a standard abbreviation. The author citation is formatted in botany with the author of the basionym in parentheses if the currently accepted binomial name is different from the original. The full name is the binomial followed by the citation for the author or authors who published that name, as shown here.^[vi]

Epilobium coloratum Biehler

In Wikipedia, author abbreviations are printed in small font using either <small></small> or {{Small}}.

The |authority= parameter contains the string of author abbreviations applicable to the species covered by the article. It will automatically format the string with small font. Wikilinking the authors is optional during this drive. In this example, piped Wikilinks for the authors are used and a source citation in shortened footnote format is appended to the authority.

| genus             = Symphyotrichum
| species           = pilosum
| authority         = ([[Carl Ludwig Willdenow|Willd.]]) [[Guy L. Nesom|G.L.Nesom]]{{Sfnp|POWO|2022}}

Dates and publications are not to be included with the botanical names in the Speciesbox. If you find a botanical article that includes dates or publications within a taxon name in a Taxobox, Automatic taxobox, Speciesbox, etc., remove them and leave only the binomial and author citation.

See Author citation (botany) for a more detailed description of author citations.

Not all species have subdivisions, and the subdivision parameters only apply to those with currently accepted ones. Subdivisions of species are called infraspecies and can include subspecies, varieties, subvarieties, and forms. The same reliable secondary source used to confirm the correct species name in § Step 1: validate species name should be used to find the accepted infraspecies.

There are multiple ways to add a list of subdivisions to the Speciesbox. You can set the parameter |subdivision_ranks=[[Infraspecies]] (including the Wikilink) or to the individual infraspecies type if only one applies (such as "Varieties", as shown in the example below).

A manually bulleted list is an option for parameter |subdivision=, particularly if the list of subdivisions is short. A longer list might be better suited for a collapsible format such as what can be provided by using the {{Collapsible list}} or {{Species list}} templates. The Species list template will automatically format the values.

The example uses a bulleted list, each variety in the example is manually italicized, and the author citations are set to small font using the template Small. Set the parameter |subdivision_ref= with the citation for the reference.

The two varieties for Symphyotrichum pilosum in this example are listed in the |subdivision= parameter using a simple bulleted list with asterisks. The first is the autonym Symphyotrichum pilosum var. pilosum, abbreviated S. pilosum var. pilosum. The second is Symphyotrichum pilosum var. pringlei, abbreviated S. pilosum var. pringlei. Note that the connector "var.", which stands for "variety", is not italicized, nor would be "subsp." for "subspecies", "subvar." for "subvariety", or "f." for "form".

| subdivision_ranks = [[Variety (botany)|Varieties]]
| subdivision_ref   = {{Sfnp|POWO|2022}}
| subdivision       = 
*''S. pilosum'' var. ''pilosum''
*''S. pilosum'' var. ''pringlei'' {{Small|(A.Gray) G.L.Nesom}}

Check for conservation information for the species in the databases from the lists at Wikipedia:Conservation status and Template:Taxobox/species/doc. Descriptions of accepted values for the conservation parameters |status=, |status_system=, |status_ref=, |status2=, |status2_system=, and |status2_ref= are at Template:Taxobox/species/doc. A second status would be used if, for example, the species is in both the NatureServe (TNC) database and the IUCN Red List (IUCN). Fill in at least the first set if conservation information can be found. Here is an example using NatureServe.

| status            = G5
| status_system     = TNC
| status_ref        = {{Sfnp|NatureServe|2022}}

Templates {{Cite IUCN}} and {{Cite NatureServe}} are recommended for citations of those two databases.

Add Wikilinks to terms. Break the article into level-2 sections (==). You don't need to break up the body of the article into these exact sections, but these are standard for plant species articles (see Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Template) and may be changed later by another editor if you veer from the standard. The following information needs to be included, preferably in this order. Include citations to sources.

Description

Basic description of the plant. Information can come from a flora or other source, most likely a secondary source rather than the original species description.

Distribution and habitat

Information on where it is found (native and introduced) and description of the habitat(s).

Conservation (if information is available)

Check the databases from the lists at Wikipedia:Conservation status and Template:Taxobox/species/doc. Include a few sentences of conservation information which should be, in prose, anything you had added to the Speciesbox plus some additional conservation information you can glean from the source. Templates {{Cite IUCN}} and {{Cite NatureServe}} are recommended for citations.

{{As of|2021|July}}, [[NatureServe]] listed ''S. novae-angliae'' as [[NatureServe conservation status|Secure (G5)]] worldwide. This status was last reviewed on {{Nowrap|13 May 2016}}. In individual provinces and states, it is listed as Possibly [[Extirpated]] (SX) in [[Oklahoma]]; Critically Imperiled (S1) in [[Saskatchewan]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[South Carolina]], and Wyoming; Imperiled (S2) in [[Colorado]]; and, Vulnerable (S3) in [[North Carolina]].

Create a level-2 section (==) called References, Citations, or Sources (your choice), unless it already exists. Add the {{Reflist}} template to the section if it or something similar is not there. See Wikipedia:Citing sources for detailed information on this topic.

Below the references, If it doesn't exist, add a taxonbar with the {{Taxonbar}} template. It is explained in the template documentation.

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Template § Categories for information.

Confirm that the article now contains at least what is listed as required (the should haves) for assessing a taxon article as Start-class.

Once an article contains what is in the should haves from § Step 10: confirm article contents, do the following:

1. From the bottom of the article page, remove the stub template and publish this change.
2. On the article talk page, do the following:
   • Change parameter |class= of template {{WikiProject banner shell}} from stub to start.
   • Change or remove the following parameter values, if applicable, for the template {{WikiProject Plants}}:
     • |needs-photo=y if there is no photo of the plant in the article. If there is a photo in the article, remove this parameter.
     • |needs-map=y if there is no range (or distribution) map in the Speciesbox. If there is a range map in the Speciesbox, remove this parameter.

Be careful not to overwrite any other templates that exist on the talk page.

Note: If your change to Start-class is questioned, you can refer the questioner to Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Assessment. If it is reverted, you can tag a coordinator of this drive (e.g., {{u|Eewilson}}) in a comment on the talk page of the article.

Go to the Stub-to-Start participants page and follow the instructions to add your information to the list. The instructions and the list are transcluded below.

If optional items are in the article and they have source citations, these will need to be verified, corrected (if applicable), and the proper source(s) cited (if applicable). Unsourced optional statements of fact that you have not added can be tagged inline with {{Citation needed}}.

If you are upgrading an article that does not have an established convention of date format, reference format, or English style, feel free to add your chosen templates and use your conventions of choice. If a convention has been previously used, follow it. These templates take the parameter |date=October 2024.

{{Use dmy dates}}

{{Use mdy dates}}

{{Use shortened footnotes}}

{{Use list-defined references}}

{{Use American English}}

{{Use Australian English}}

{{Use British English}}

{{Use Canadian English}}

etc.

For Start-class articles, images are optional.

The following information is optional for Start-class articles. You can postpone them. However, if any of these exist in the article, you will need to either confirm any facts are sourced reliably or tag them inline with cleanup tags such as {{Citation needed}}.

• Images
• Wikilinks on the author abbreviations
• Subgenus, section, or subsection as parent
• Range or distribution map
• Synonyms in the Speciesbox

Two images of the species are possible in the Speciesbox, and images are nice but optional for Start-class articles. In this example, one image is shown for each of the two varieties.

| image             = Symphyotrichum pilosum 237289574.jpg
| image_alt         = four blooming flowers with white ray florets and yellow disk florets
| image_caption     = {{Nowrap|''S. pilosum'' var.}} ''pilosum''

| image2            = Symphyotrichum_pilosum_pringlei_Tennessee.jpg
| image2_alt        = growing in cracks of limestone riverscour is a blooming plant with many flowers with white ray florets and yellow disk florets
| image2_caption    = {{Nowrap|''S. pilosum'' var.}} ''pringlei''

Adding a list of synonyms in the Speciesbox is optional for Start-class articles. There are multiple ways to add lists of synonyms to the Speciesbox. Symphyotrichum pilosum, shown below, has a separate basionym, and its two varieties each have multiple synonyms. This example uses a combination of a simple bulleted list for the basionym and two uses of {{Collapsible list}}, each with its own use of {{Species list}}. Species list is a shortcutted way to make a list of species without having to do the formatting manually. In nearly all cases, use only one reliable source for the list of synonyms. Set the parameter |synonyms_ref= with the citation for the reference. The same reliable secondary source used to confirm the correct species name in Step 1: validate species name should be used to find the synonyms. Do not combine synonym lists from multiple sources.

| synonyms_ref      = {{Sfnp|POWO|2022}}
| synonyms          =
'''Basionym'''
*''Aster pilosus'' {{Small|Willd.}}
{{Collapsible list | title=Species
 | {{Species list
   | Aster chrysogonii | [[Frère Sennen|Sennen]]
   | Aster ericoides var. pilosus | (Willd.) [[Thomas Conrad Porter|Porter]]
   | Aster ericoides var. platyphyllus | [[John Torrey|Torr.]] & A.Gray
   | Aster ericoides f. villosus | (Torr. & A.Gray) [[Andreas Voss (botanist)|Voss]]
   | Aster ericoides var. villosus | Torr. & A.Gray
   | Aster juniperinus | [[Edward Sandford Burgess|E.S.Burgess]]
   | Aster pilosus var. demotus | [[Sidney Fay Blake|S.F.Blake]]
   | Aster pilosus var. platyphyllus | S.F.Blake
   | Aster pilosus f. pulchellus | [[Hermann Conrad Benke|Benke]]
   | Aster villosus | [[André Michaux|Michx.]], ''[[Nomen illegitimum|nom. illeg.]]''
  }}
 }}
{{Collapsible list | title=Variety ''pringlei''
 | {{Species list
   | Aster ericoides var. pringlei | A.Gray
   | Aster faxonii | Porter
   | Aster pilosus var. pringlei | S.F.Blake
   | Aster polyphyllus | Willd., ''nom. illeg.''
   | Aster pringlei | [[Nathaniel Lord Britton|Britton]]
  }}
 }}

The taxonomy section, optional for Start-class articles, could include an elaboration of information about the currently accepted names of any subtaxa (subspecies, varieties, forms). It could also answer some of the following questions: Who first described this species and when? What is the basionym (original scientific name)? When and by whom was the currently accepted scientific name given? What is the etymology of the scientific name? Here, repeat the English common names from the lead, with sources, and add any less prominent ones that you happen to have found. This is an optional section for Start-class, and attempting to find information and add it may slow down your progress.

See the Plants project list of website resources for a list of some sources. Some of the links are out of date, some of the websites are no longer kept up to date, and some that we use now may not be on the list. See Wikipedia:Reliable sources for the Wikipedia content guideline on reliable sources.

Often, we give or receive praise in Wikipedia for doing the hard thing to make an article GA or FA class. Here, we praise each other for making our articles just good enough to get started. We praise each other for not going the extra ten miles. We praise each other for the smaller steps. It's a concept we may have forgotten about while striving for the best. "Best" actually might be hindering our progress.

So let's praise each other for following the Stub-to-Start instructions. Let's praise each other for not creating articles. Let's praise each other and ourselves for being a part of a group of people who are passionate about improving the encyclopedia.

Leave notes on drive participants' talk pages with praise. You can also use {{The Plantae Barnstar}} to bestow praise upon another editor who is contributing to the drive.

Until a more permanent log of articles improved in this drive is developed, please list your contributions on the Stub-to-Start statistics page which is transcluded below.