user68: Recently there was a few questions asking for identification of potentially edible species:

What is the species of these mushrooms?
What kind of fruit is this?

I think that there is a similar problem with this kind of questions like with a medical advice questions (not allowed). The identification may be wrong and someone may get poisoned based on information in one of answers. 
Should we do something about it? For example some kind of warning that one should use the information on this webside on his own risk?

user222: Neither of the example questions provide very much evidence of research or thought.
Perhaps the FAQ should have guidelines for asking species identification, including the minimum required amount of information.
Regarding edibility, there are many plants and fungi that a botanist could identify with very high accuracy from a single photo, but I think that suggesting something is edible based on photographs is a bad idea. As an imperfect analogy, it would be easy to say (about the picture below) "that is almost certainly bread" without wishing to imply that it is edible.

(photo by Logan Sakai http://www.flickr.com/photos/loganz/3443212473/sizes/m/in/photostream/)

user389: This is certainly the more bizarre but totally believable scenarios. I think that we should absolutely allow the questions but we may need to edit the questions in a way where they don't involve the edibility of the species and guide the answers from refraining from answering that part of the question.
A general warning would be a confusing legal issue.

68: <p>Recently there was a few questions asking for identification of potentially edible species:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/3476/what-is-the-species-of-these-mushrooms">What is the species of these mushrooms?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/3360/what-kind-of-fruit-is-this/3364#3364">What kind of fruit is this?</a></li>
</ul>

<p>I think that there is a similar problem with this kind of questions like with a medical advice questions (not allowed). The identification may be wrong and someone may get poisoned based on information in one of answers. </p>

<p>Should we do something about it? For example some kind of warning that one should use the information on this webside on his own risk?</p>
 222: <p>Neither of the example questions provide very much evidence of research or thought.</p>
<p>Perhaps the FAQ should have guidelines for asking species identification, including the minimum required amount of information.</p>
<p>Regarding edibility, there are many plants and fungi that a botanist could identify with very high accuracy from a single photo, but I think that suggesting something is edible based on photographs is a bad idea. As an imperfect analogy, it would be easy to say (about the picture below) &quot;that is almost certainly bread&quot; without wishing to imply that it is edible.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/SxFGk.jpg" alt="http://www.flickr.com/photos/loganz/3443212473/sizes/m/in/photostream/" /></p>
<p>(photo by Logan Sakai <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/loganz/3443212473/sizes/m/in/photostream/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.flickr.com/photos/loganz/3443212473/sizes/m/in/photostream/</a>)</p>
 389: <p>This is certainly the more bizarre but totally believable scenarios. I think that we should absolutely allow the questions but we may need to edit the questions in a way where they don't involve the edibility of the species and guide the answers from refraining from answering that part of the question.</p>

<p>A general warning would be a confusing legal issue.</p>
