User:Eewilson/StubToStart

Introduction

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 coordinators are Eewilson....

Why participate in the Stub-to-Start Drive?

• It's fast!
• It's easy!
• It took longer to write up these instructions than it will to upgrade an article!
• It's perfect for the newcomer.
• It's a nice break from the in-depth research required for GA and FA preparations.
• It can get you back into an editing groove if you've been absent for a while.
• We're a friendly bunch.
• You can learn botanical terminology.
• You can practice your Wikipedia editing skills.
• You can learn about editing plant species articles!
• We have pretty flowers!
• You don't have to be a botanist. You don't even have to know what one is.
• You can do a half-assed job and still succeed.
• You can contribute much in a relatively short period of time.
• We have cacti!
• You can learn about species.
• We have a Barnstar!
• You can use sources you are unfamiliar with.
• You can learn about the Plants project!
• There is practically no pressure, and we have ferns.
• You can, and are encouraged to, ignore all the red links you see.
• We have an entire page on the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) which you may never have to read.
• You can become a pro at using citation templates.
• And perhaps the best part of all, you are grading your own work!

Dos and don'ts

During the Stub-to-Start Drive...

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

Finding Stub-class articles

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 work on a particular genus, click on "Filter by article name", type in the genus name, and it will return a list of Stub-class articles with that name in the title. For example, when I typed in the string "Allium" on 6 October 2024, I got 354 Stub articles within the genus Allium.

Note that it does not appear to be trimming leading or trailing spaces from the text of this field, so make sure there aren't any before you update the view, or you may get no results.

How to sign up

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

Steps to upgrade a species article from Stub to Start

We will use the assessment guidelines given in the Plants project Taxon-specific quality guidelines to determine if an article is of Start-class quality. The Start-class guideline is transcluded from that page in Step 10: confirm article contents. For direction, we will also refer to the Plants project article advice and the taxon template.

Step 0: use a browser and log in

Using a browser, log in to your account.

Step 1: validate species name

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 or accepted species name. Most used databases are as follows.

• For ferns and lycophytes, use World Ferns (a part of World Plants) at https://www.worldplants.de/world-ferns/ferns-and-lycophytes-list.
• For the remaining vascular plants, use Plants of the World Online (POWO) at https://powo.science.kew.org/.
• For algae, use AlgaeBase at https://www.algaebase.org/.
• For mosses, liverworts, and hornworts, use World Flora Online (WFO) at https://wfoplantlist.org/.

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.
  • 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 with a blank title which will be filled in by a bot. Change the example parameter values with what is appropriate for your situation. Use {{RM notice}}.
     • {{subst:RM notice|Pagename|New name|talk=Talkpage|section=sect}}

If the move is successful, confirm there are no additional changes required to the newly named article in order to keep it consistent with the new taxon name, then proceed to Step 2 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.

Step 2: study the 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}}, {{Bare URL non-HTML}}, {{Bare URL AV media}}, {{Bare URL PDF}}, {{Bare URL image}}, {{Bare URL DOC}}, {{Bare URL plain text}}, or {{Bare URL spreadsheet}}).
  • Helpful, but optional: change bare URLs to the appropriate citation format using citation templates.
• Mark plain text sources with tag {{Full citation needed}}.

Step 3: short description

If {{Short description}} is not at the very top of the article, add it. The standard Plants project wording for the short description in a species article is {{Short description|Species of KINDOFPLANT in the family WHATEVER}}, where "KINDOFPLANT" is "flowering plant", "fern", "tree", etc., and "WHATEVER" is the scientific name of the family, such as Asteraceae, Hypericaceae, Plantaginaceae, etc.

To learn more about the short description within Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Short description. For optional convention templates to use during this drive, see Convention templates (optional).

Step 4: lead section

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 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, italicized and in parentheses
3. Lifespan, Wikilinked (perennial, annual, biennial)
4. Growth/habit, Wikilinked (herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plant, woody plant, vine, shrub, tree, etc.)
5. Taxonomic family, Wikilinked (in the Asteraceae family)
6. Nativity, only 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.

Lead example 1 – Excerpt from the lead of Symphyotrichum pilosum

Symphyotrichum pilosum (formerly Aster pilosus) is a perennial, herbaceous, flowering plant in the Asteraceae family native to central and eastern North America. It is commonly called hairy white oldfield aster and frost aster.

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

Lead example 2 – Entire lead of Symphyotrichum molle

Symphyotrichum molle (formerly Aster mollis) is a species of flowering plant in the aster family (Asteraceae) endemic to the Bighorn Mountains of Montana and Wyoming in the United States. Commonly known as soft aster, it is a perennial, herbaceous plant that ranges from 30 to 60 centimeters (12 to 24 inches) in height.

{{Strong|''Symphyotrichum molle''}} (formerly ''Aster mollis'') is a [[species]] of flowering plant in the aster [[Family (botany)|family]] ([[Asteraceae]]) [[Endemism|endemic]] to the [[Bighorn Mountains]] of [[Montana]] and [[Wyoming]] in the United States. Commonly known as {{Strong|soft aster}}, 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.

Step 5: speciesbox

Detailed information for many {{Speciesbox}} parameters is provided at Template:Automatic taxobox#Available parameters and how to use them. Not all of the parameters of the Automatic taxobox are necessary for a species, and using Speciesbox is more appropriate. The page link for Automatic taxobox is provided here for reference only.

While the Speciesbox resides near the lead, it is not a part of the lead. The following elements, if used, require citations to reliable sources.

• Image captions: If they state facts requiring a source, citations should be placed within the text of the caption nearest to where the fact is stated: |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.
• Subdivisions: |subdivisions_ref=
• Synonyms: |synonyms_ref=

There is some Speciesbox information you can intentionally postpone during this drive. 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 can be tagged inline with {{Citation needed}}.

Conservation (if information is available)

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 was 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.

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

Species binomial

A botanical species binomial contains the genus name in sentence case followed by the species name in all lowercase. It is italicized. The full species name is the binomial followed by the standard abbreviations for the author or authors who published that name. In parentheses is the original author of the basionym if different from the author of the current name. Each author has a unique abbreviation for use within a botanical name. The author abbreviation is most likely given in the source being used, but can be verified using the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) online at https://www.ipni.org/. See Author citation (botany) for a description of author citations. In Wikipedia, the author abbreviations are printed in small font using either <small></small> or {{Small}}. Dates and publications are not included with the botanical names.

The |authority= parameter contains the string of author abbreviations applicable to the species covered by the article. Wikilinking the authors is optional during this drive. The Speciesbox template will automatically convert this string to small font. In this example, 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}}

Subdivisions

Not all species have subdivisions, and this only applies to those with currently accepted ones. There are multiple ways to add a list of subdivisions to the Speciesbox. Subdivisions of species are called infraspecies and can include subspecies, varieties, subvarieties, and forms. 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). 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 same sources used to confirm the correct species name in Step 1 should be used here.

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.

| 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}}

Step 6: main body

For a Start-class article, you don't need to break up the body of the article into these two-level sections, although if it is a logical thing to do, these are standard for plant species articles. If you do not use sections, the basic information needs to be included, preferably in this order.

Description

Basic description of the plant. Information can come from a flora or other source.

Distribution and habitat

Basic descriptions of where it is found (native and introduced) and in what habitat(s).

Conservation (if information is available)

A few sentences of conservation information which should include, in prose, anything you had added to the Speciesbox. Check applicable databases from the list at Template:Taxobox/species/doc.

Step 7: reference section

Create a two-level section called References, Citations, or Sources (your choice), unless it already exists. Add the {{Reflist}} template to the section. See Wikipedia:Citing sources for detailed information on this topic.

Step 8: taxonbar

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

Step 9: categories

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

Step 10: confirm article contents

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

The following text is transcluded from Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Assessment#Start guidelines.

To be of Start-class, the taxon article should have the following:

• Taxobox (preferably automatic taxobox or speciesbox) and a taxonbar
• List of descendant taxa
• Basic description of its appearance (morphology)
• Basic description of its distribution and habitat
• Conservation status, if relevant
• Reference at least one secondary scholarly source that goes beyond simply verifying that the species is valid

Helpful but not required for the article to be of Start-class are the following:

• Image or illustration
• Basic taxonomy, etymology, including synonyms listed in the taxobox, common name(s)
• Touch on any subjects that are particularly relevant to the taxon, e.g. horticulture, agriculture, culture, etc., more of which are listed at the WP:PLANTS Template in detail

Step 11: finishing up

Once an article contains what is in Step 10, 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.

Sign-up: participants and their chosen articles

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.

The following text is transcluded from User:Eewilson/StubToStartParticipants.

List of participants
(Enter yourself at the bottom of the list by following the sign-up instructions.)

• Elizabeth (Eewilson) (tag or ping me) (talk) 17:45, 10 October 2024 (UTC) – subtribe Symphyotrichinae, possibly Solidago, Liatris, Baptisia, Epilobium
• Fritzmann2002 — family Hypericaceae
• 🌿MtBotany (talk) 17:27, 12 October 2024 (UTC) – Penstemon, Castilleja, Argemone, Ipomopsis, then Gilia
• Pagliaccious (talk) 03:10, 13 October 2024 (UTC) – Bromus

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Instructions

Follow these instructions to sign up to participate in the Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants Stub-to-start Drive. Your entry will include a bullet point, your signature, and what you plan to upgrade. The purpose of listing what we are working on is to avoid bumping into each other (although, with over 61,000 plants stub articles as of October 2024, there is a statistically small chance that will happen).

1. Log in to your account.
2. On a new line at the bottom of the list, type an asterisk (*) to create a bullet point.
3. Enter ~~~~ to add your signature with date and time stamp.
4. Enter an {{ndash}}.
5. Still on the same line, enter the articles you plan to upgrade.

   To upgrade certain species articles: * ~~~~ {{ndash}} ''[[GENUS SPECIES]]''

   To upgrade species articles within a genus: * ~~~~ {{ndash}} ''[[GENUS]]''

   To upgrade species articles within a small subtribe: * ~~~~ {{ndash}} [[SUBTRIBE]]

   • If you wish to upgrade an article or work in a taxon that has already been added to the list, you can contact the user and decide who will do what, or you can choose another species or genus.
   • If you wish for a coordinator to assign you articles, place {{ndash}} request NUMBEROF article(s) or {{ndash}} request genus [or NUMBEROF genera] after your signature, and the links to the articles will be added here with a message to you on your user talk page.
6. Publish your edits.

Changing your article list
You can change the list of articles assigned to you by doing either (or both) of the following:

• Adding more articles next to your name;
• Deleting any articles next to your name as long as you have not yet upgraded them.

Do not remove articles that you have upgraded. Do not add a check mark or the word or template "Done". That's not necessary here, but feel free to keep your own list if you wish.

Ending your participation
To end your participation in the drive, do one of the following:

• If you have not upgraded any articles, simply remove the entire line with your signature.
• If you have upgraded articles, do not remove the line with your signature. Instead, replace the what you had planned to upgrade with the what you did upgrade.

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Notes

Appendix 1: optional items and things to postpone

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}}.

Convention templates (optional)

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.

Images (optional)

For Start-class articles, images are optional. Attempting to find and add these may slow down your progress.

Additional Speciesbox information (optional)

The following information is not necessary for the Stub-to-Start Drive, and attempting to add these items may slow down your progress. 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

Speciesbox images (optional)

Two images of the species are possible in the Speciesbox, and both are optional during this drive. In this example, one image is shown for each of the two varieties. Attempting to add these may slow down your progress.

| 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''

Speciesbox synonym list (optional)

Adding a list of synonyms in the Speciesbox is optional during this drive. 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 sources used to confirm the correct species name in Step 1 should be used here. 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]]
  }}
 }}

Taxonomy (optional)

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.

Appendix 2: reliable sources for plant articles

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 (such as Plants of the World Online (POWO)) are not on the list. See Wikipedia:Reliable sources for the Wikipedia content guideline on reliable sources.

Appendix 3: praising your peers

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.