Louise: here's the answer I got from Dave regarding my proposal about marking these threads closed:
"It's a good proposal but the problem is, if I add the feature, it's likely that most of the questioners won't go back and mark it as solved and then we end up with an inconsistently applied feature. So, I'd rather just leave it as it is."
I hadn't thought about that but I know we have the ability to close threads on the Plant Identification Forum and lots of folks forget to mark their threads closed after they get an ID so I do understand.