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There will be two parts of this tutorial.
This site is made up of two databases.
1. The Wildcrafting.net Database which is our custom database of wild edibles that can be linked to Google Map locations and allow for individual comments and pictures
2. The USDA Plants Database which is a USDA database of all plants growing in North America.
When you add a plant to our site you're adding it to the Wildcrafting.net database. But because the USDA database has pretty much every plant represented in it the easiest thing for you to do is search the USDA database to find the plant, either by common name or scientific name, and then from the plant page you can choose to add it to our site (if it hasn't been added already), and much of the information will be filled out for you.
The other option is to fill out all the information manually.
So to add a plant manually you first go to this page. If you're adding via a USDA search the links you'll click will eventually take you here as well.
The first field is for scientific name, we require this, it is necessary to keep data separate in the database.
The second, third, and fourth fields are for optional common names, one per field, if you know them.
Then you select if you are adding a plant, or a mushroom, and you select if it is medicinal, edible, or both.
There is a field for you to add a comment, and a field for you to update an image. We do require an image to be uploaded, preferably one you've taken or one you know isn't copyrighted. Uploading someone else's copyrighted image would be against the log. The final box is for a caption for your image.
You then hit submit and your plant should be added.
First please read our What to Mark page to learn when it is appropriate to plot a location on the maps.
Either browse or search for the plant you wish to plot on the map from our Wildcrafting.net database. If you cannot find the plant it may not be in our database yet and so you can add it.
Once you've found the plant, at the top of the blue box is a tab called "Locations" click that, and using the manual map tools or the "Pan to Address" box pan to the location where the plant is and zoom all the way in. If you're using the "Pan to Address" box you can usually just type in a street address and a zip code, or even a zip code if you want to start in the center of a town.
We require you to zoom all the way in for utmost in accuracy, depending on the resolution offered at the location you may be able to accurately plot the plant within feet of where it grows.
For even more accuracy you can add by GPS coordinates if you know them.
Click the "Add Marker to Map" button (assuming you don't have GPS data) and a marker will appear in the middle of your current screen, you can then drag it around to the exact spot.
Fill in the name of the location, and in the "Info" field you can fill in a longer description of the location, directions to get there, specific characteristics, things like that. Once you've added the location you can also go back and add a picture of that specific location by clicking on the marker on the map.
To add a picture or comment to an existing marker, visit the plant's main page, click on the "Locations" tab, pan and zoom to the market, click on it with your mouse cursor and then select the "Comment" or "Pictures" tab.