JOSM preset for trees

Hi,
since some time I’ve the plan to capture trees in OSM.
The problem for me was the huge effort to arrange the tags.
So I prepared a preset for JOSM and Vespucci (until now only in DE) to make this easier.
https://github.com/Heiner-Sch/JOSM-preset-trees-Europe

In this preset are the trees with their botanic, EN, DE and FR names, organized in groups.
In the OSM data base is the botanic name, the leaf_cycle and the leaf_type written.

There are e.g. also menu topics for unspecified conifers or oaks, if it’s not possible to identify the tree in detail.

Now I’m interested in feedback.

I like the preset! Thanks a lot for putting your time and energy into making it.

Two remarks:

When adding the ‘species’ tag, according to the wiki, it’s not necessary to also add the ‘genus’ tag.

As the preset already has the local name for many trees, why not add them in the species namespace. For example species:de=Stieleiche or pecies:en=English Oak (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:species)

You might consider adding the proposed tag “pruning”, see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/pruning
Especially pollarding is quite common around here - they are considered a typical landscape element

The hint with the local names came also in the DE forum.
But during the building phase of the preset, I got the feedback that it has also a disadvantage.

Today there are three languages in the preset.
But maybe in future there are more.
Every tree needs the full set of ‘species:xx’ (today three), which doesn’t keep the data clean.
So I removed all ‘species:xx’ lines from the preset.

This is not valid for the Vespucci preset, because it’s only in one language.
But I wanted to keep both presets as similar as possible.

I need to think about the ‘genus’ tag…
Will it make selections in the data easier?

If the tag ‘pruning’ is agreed, I’ll think about it.
But it’ll make the preset more special.
Maybe that’s something for a version with botanic names only?

Made a rework of the JOSM preset to make the nuts and chestnuts unique.

And there is now a repository for the Vespucci preset:
https://github.com/Heiner-Sch/Vespucci-preset-trees-Europe
Here you’ll find the preset with botanic names and translations in DE, EN and FR.

With the pot-file it’s easy to add more languages later.

this preset is a very good idea, I find it far too time-consuming to add this information right now.

However, I do not think it is a good idea to translate all values by hand again and hardcode it in the preset.
they are indeed in osm genus:XX species:XX (which in my opinion pollute the base and make query harder) will for once find their usefulness :slight_smile: if for a given value, there is + 90% of the same value for a genus:XX, imho it’s the correct one until someone desagree with it.
So i’m more in favor of some code that build, from time to time a list of all known translation and use wikidata to retrieve the missing one and update the preset when a new one is found.

Is it possible to add a “newbie” mode: for example I’m able to first fill in the type of leaf or the leaf cycle (depending on the season), and then see to list the compatible genus ? so I can look/learn what it could be.

I think you after some time this preset will be more or less static. There are not new species in Europe every few weeks. So also the translations don’t need frequent updates. That’s what I hope!
But if there has someone a script or program to make a translation into a new language faster, let us know here.

The “newbie” mode is already in. You have the option to use the unspecified trees. It’s available with prefilled leaf type and/or leaf cycle and/or genus.
What are you missing exactly? Maybe I didn’t get the point?

Thanks for this, very helpful. I have two questions please. What is the Start Date tag used for? What happens if you leave it empty?