Privacy Notice

Effective date: August 21, 2026

Policy version: 2026-08-21

Tree TSAR editorial-submission provisions effective: August 17, 2026

Who operates this website

Phytonomen LLC operates this website, the Phytonomen consultation-request process, and Tree TSAR. This Privacy Notice applies to information handled through those activities and to information that may be processed when advertising is displayed on eligible Tree TSAR pages.

Information you choose to provide

When you choose to submit a consultation request through the project-submission form, Phytonomen may collect:

your name, email address, optional telephone number, client type, and organization or affiliation;
the service you selected;
general project-location information, including city, state, ZIP code, and county;
site type, project goals, project summary, preferences, constraints, and other project information you enter; and
your required acknowledgment and the policy and acknowledgment versions that applied when you submitted the request.

If a request proceeds to an accepted Project, Phytonomen may also collect and maintain Service Orders, Standard Terms and document versions or hashes, electronic-signature and affirmation records, payment status and accounting records, Project notices and delivery status, contact-information changes, supplemental-work acceptances, outside-provider authorizations, and optional publicity consent.

When you choose to submit a Tree TSAR suggestion or correction, Phytonomen may collect the submission type, taxon or page, page address, proposed correction, supporting evidence and sources, and the required editorial-review acknowledgment. Your name, affiliation or expertise, and email address are optional. A trusted originating-page title and address may also be recorded when the form is opened from a Tree TSAR taxon page.

Submitted names, email addresses, affiliations, and correspondence do not automatically become public. Public acknowledgment is discretionary and requires appropriate identifying information supplied for that purpose. An email address supplied for correspondence is not, by itself, permission to publish the address or identify the contributor.

Please provide only information relevant to plant selection and the project site. Do not submit passwords, payment-card information, Social Security numbers, government identification numbers, medical records, account credentials, or unrelated private information.

For allergy or safety concerns, identify only the plant, plant group, or exposure that should be avoided. Do not provide a diagnosis, treatment history, medication information, or other detailed medical information.

Information processed automatically

Submitting a request or editorial suggestion also involves technical and security processing. Depending on availability and the services involved, this may include submission and acceptance timestamps, IP or network information, browser and request metadata, security and delivery logs, and Cloudflare Turnstile validation data. Some of this information may be processed transiently for routing, security, abuse prevention, or troubleshooting without being added to the consultation record.

While you prepare a draft, your answers remain in the visible form controls in your browser. Phytonomen receives and stores those answers only when you actively submit the consultation request through the project-submission form. Tree TSAR suggestion information is likewise received and stored only when you actively submit the Suggestions and Corrections form. The website may still make ordinary technical requests needed to load pages, check submission availability, or provide security features.

Phytonomen uses Google Ads measurement services throughout the website. When the website successfully accepts and stores a consultation request, it sends a conversion event to Google Ads. The event does not include consultation answers, project descriptions, payment amounts, contact information, or a transaction identifier. Enhanced conversions are not enabled, and Phytonomen does not currently send a separate purchase conversion to Google Ads. Google may process technical information associated with this measurement according to the visitor’s applicable consent and privacy choices.

Advertising on Tree TSAR

Phytonomen does not currently display advertising on the website, and Google Auto ads are not enabled. Separately from the privacy and measurement services described in this notice, Phytonomen may in the future use Google AdSense to display advertising only on eligible Tree TSAR taxon treatments and selected substantive Tree TSAR informational articles. Advertising is not intended for the Phytonomen homepage, Consulting pages (including consultation-start), consultation forms or workflow, Bookstore, or other non-Tree-TSAR pages.

When advertising is displayed on an eligible Tree TSAR page, Google and participating advertising technology providers may process technical visit and advertising information. This may include cookies or similar local storage, web beacons, IP addresses, browser and device information, page and referring URLs, advertising identifiers, and information about ad impressions, clicks, or other interactions. These technologies may support ad delivery and measurement, frequency capping, aggregated reporting, fraud prevention, security, and, where permitted and selected, personalization.

Phytonomen does not provide consultation-request answers, contact information, project descriptions, or project records to Google AdSense for advertising personalization.

Personalized and non-personalized advertising

If advertising is activated in the future, third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies to serve ads based on a visitor’s prior visits to Phytonomen or other websites. Google’s advertising cookies enable Google and its partners to serve ads based on visits to this site and other sites on the Internet. Personalized advertising may use prior or historical activity where permitted and selected by the visitor.

Non-personalized advertising is not based on a visitor’s past behavior for ad targeting. It may use contextual information, such as the content of the current page or a general location. Non-personalized ads may still use cookies, local storage, or advertising identifiers for purposes such as frequency capping, aggregated reporting, fraud prevention, and security.

Review How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services for more about Google’s processing when a website uses Google advertising services.

Advertising partners

Google may work with participating advertising technology providers to serve, measure, and protect advertising. The providers involved may change over time. Google maintains information about its current advertising technology providers, including links describing their data use, rather than Phytonomen reproducing a changing vendor list in this notice.

Phytonomen uses Google’s Privacy & Messaging consent-management platform. For applicable visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, Google presents the “Phytonomen European Privacy & Consent” message. Visitors may choose Consent, Do not consent, or Manage options. Google Consent Mode is enabled for advertising and analytics purposes so that Google services can interpret those choices. Visitors may later review or withdraw their choices through Google’s privacy and cookie settings mechanism.

For visitors in supported US states, Google presents the “Phytonomen US State Privacy Choices” mechanism, including the applicable “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” opt-out choice. It is configured for all current and future US states supported by Google’s Privacy & Messaging system. Google communicates applicable opt-out choices through its privacy framework, including Global Privacy Platform (GPP) signals.

Visitors can review or change Google advertising-personalization choices in My Ad Center. The YourAdChoices WebChoices tool also provides choices for participating third-party companies. Declining advertising consent, choosing non-personalized advertising, or opting out does not necessarily prevent all technical processing or measurement permitted under the visitor’s choices. If advertising is activated in the future, contextual advertising and processing for purposes such as frequency capping, aggregated reporting, fraud prevention, and security may still occur as permitted by applicable law and the visitor’s choices.

How information is used

Phytonomen uses submission information to:

review project fit, scope, completeness, and service options;
ask for clarification and respond to the consultation request;
prepare a quotation, service order, or agreement when a project is accepted;
administer electronic acceptance, payment confirmation, Project notices, delivery, amendments, authorizations, refunds, and replacement access;
operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the submission system; and
maintain business, legal, accounting, security, and compliance records.

Tree TSAR editorial-submission information is used to evaluate corrections, alternative treatments, sources, nomenclatural or taxonomic evidence, common names, distributions, ecology, conservation, morphology, identification, horticulture, ethnobotany, and page errors; to communicate with a contributor when an email address is supplied; and to maintain scientific and editorial provenance.

Submitting a request is not marketing consent. Phytonomen does not use submission information for unrelated marketing without separate consent and does not sell personal information.

Service providers and other disclosures

Vercel, Supabase, Cloudflare Turnstile, Resend, and Phytonomen’s business email provider may process information as needed for hosting, request handling, storage, abuse prevention, notification delivery, and transactional communication. These providers process information under their own contractual and legal obligations.

No payment provider is currently used through this website. If an electronic payment provider is later activated, this notice and the applicable Project records will identify that provider before payment information is collected. Phytonomen does not store full payment-card numbers, security codes, or bank credentials.

Phytonomen may also disclose relevant information to professional advisers, contractors, or authorities when reasonably necessary to operate the business, protect people or systems, investigate misuse, establish or defend legal rights, comply with law, or respond to lawful process. Information is not disclosed for unrelated purposes merely because it was submitted.

Retention

Phytonomen’s normal retention schedule is:

an unconverted consultation submission: 12 months after the last activity;
personally identifying Tree TSAR correction-submission information: up to 24 months after the most recent substantive correspondence relating to the submission;
non-personal scientific or editorial information from a Tree TSAR submission: potentially retained as part of Tree TSAR’s research and editorial provenance;
an accepted project’s project, agreement, and accounting records: 7 years after project completion;
notification and security-delivery logs: 90 days; and
de-identified information that no longer identifies a person: potentially indefinitely.

Information may be kept longer when reasonably necessary for a legal hold, dispute, fraud or security investigation, enforcement of an agreement, or other legal obligation. Operational backups may retain information for a limited additional period before routine deletion.

Access, correction, and deletion requests

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information associated with a consultation request by emailing consulting@phytonomen.com. You may also use that address for questions about this Privacy Notice. Phytonomen may need to verify the requester’s identity.

Access, correction, or deletion may be limited where information must be retained for an active agreement, accounting, a legal claim, fraud prevention, a security investigation, or another legitimate obligation. Review the Phytonomen Contact page for current contact guidance, and do not send sensitive information with an initial privacy inquiry.

You may update Project contact information through a verified written request. Phytonomen will make the update effective within five business days and preserve an audit record of the prior and replacement contact information. You may withdraw electronic-record consent prospectively without charge; withdrawal does not invalidate records or notices validly delivered before withdrawal. A reasonable paper or alternative process is available for future required records.

Security

Phytonomen uses reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures appropriate to the nature of the information and the current system. No internet transmission, email system, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Adults and authorized representatives

The consultation-request process is intended for adults and for people authorized to provide information on behalf of an organization. It is not directed to children.

Changes to this notice

Phytonomen may update this notice as the website, services, or legal obligations change. The effective date and policy version at the top identify the version in effect. Material changes will be presented through an appropriate website notice or during the submission process.