I'm new here, so forgive me for my ignorance but I couldn't really find guidelines or a "style guide" for the database entries. I was wondering what the guidelines should be for proposing merges and such are. From the few minor edits I have proposed, I've learned a little on what is and isn't accepted, but rather than try to learn by trial and error, I thought I'd ask first.
For example when I first found this interesting "weed" with spines, yellow milky sap, and a white flower growing in the bare ground of the neighborhood where our homes were being built, I decided to do some research and found that it was actually a wildflower called Prickly Poppy. Looking here, I found multiple entries--some with only a line or two of general info. Rather than just going by what I think I know to suggest merges, what should we use as supporting documentation? While I like sites like www.theplantlist.org, it's certainly not a de facto source. Even the USDA site can have some inconsistencies with other sources.
So without knowing what this database prefers, below would be my proposed changes and why. Please let me know whether these do or don't make sense:
Prickly Poppy (Argemone albiflora subsp. albiflora) - merge with/synonym of Plant ID: 80040
Prickly Poppy (Argemone squarrosa subsp. squarrosa) - merge with/synonym of Plant ID: 80049
Prickly Poppy (Argemone polyanthemos) - so no recommendations, but I take a lot of exceptions of the common names, based on what I've learned since this is the type that we should have around here. I would say that the common names are either Crested Prickly Poppy or Prickly Proppy/Pricklypoppy. In my opinion, the other common names belong to other species of the plant. However, I suppose people will get the names confused easily between all the species, so technically it could commonly be called all these names...
Originally I had a lot more suggestions for merging subspecies, but I definitely don't know enough in this area to say what should and shouldn't be merged.
Any thoughts or guidance is greatly appreciated as I'd like to be able to contribute to the integrity of this resource, but am not quite sure how in some ways.