Plants: Nomenclature and Taxonomy

Botanists vote to remove racist reference from plants’ scientific names

invalid@example.com (togata57) — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 11:10:34 +0000

Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.

“This is an absolutely monumental first step in addressing an issue that has become a real problem in botany and also in other biological...

Botanists vote to remove racist reference from plants’ scientific names

Siam oak?

invalid@example.com (kona) — Thu, 16 May 2024 23:12:44 +0000

Hi - new here - my very first post.

Can anyone help me to identify what oak species Siam Oak is?

I purchased an musical instrument made from "Saim Oak". I've tried to look it up in some plant dictionaries - no luck so far. All I've been able to find is that the wood is from Thailand (Thailand's former name was Siam). I have a list of Quercus species that grow in Thailand but none of them, so far as I can find, has a common name of Siam Oak.

Maybe it's a name the music and...

Siam oak?

White Spruce

invalid@example.com (Michael F) — Sun, 12 May 2024 11:31:10 +0000

Kew Plants of the World Online [POWO] have recently decided that White Spruce - universally known as Picea glauca for the last century - should actually be called Picea laxa. The reasoning behind this is a change in the view of an early publication, Münchhausen's 1770 Der Hausvater. In this (vol. 5 p. 225), White Spruce is described as P.[inus] Abies laxa. In the past, this has...

White Spruce

Common names - need there be standards?

invalid@example.com (wcutler) — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 21:58:28 +0000

I take the blame for this. In my posting of plants mentioned by Douglas Justice in his December 2020 in the UBCBG garden blog, I wrote:

.
I am moving further discussion re: common names from that thread to this new thread in an appropriate forum.

Nomenclature Authorities

invalid@example.com (Eric La Fountaine) — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 07:50:50 +0000

Plant classification and nomenclature is a work in progress. It can be difficult to keep up for the plant enthusiast as well as the botanist. My work as accessions technician here at UBCBG, requires that I to try to do just that. The work has become easier in recent years due to the increase in good online botanical database resources. I thought forum readers might like to explore some of the websites I use to look up plant information.

Here is a list of the major websites I use:

1....

Nomenclature Authorities

Mistaken Identity

invalid@example.com (Margot) — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 05:14:47 +0000

The ongoing discussion about the elusive Nanaimo Peach has me wondering whether we can ever completely trust that any plant we purchase is, in fact, what the label or the vendor says it is. At one time or other, I think we have all discovered a plant we thought was X that turned out to be Y. Sometimes it takes years until the dang thing blooms and reveals its mistaken identity.

It almost doesn’t matter whether the label says the plant is trademarked or copyrighted because ultimately we...

Mistaken Identity

Plant Patents and Trademarks

invalid@example.com (Ron B) — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:59:12 +0000

Putting a TM after the word Nanaimo did not secure any ownership rights to the involved genetic material. Or even the name itself. This commercial site explains the system: Plant Patents & Trademarks (fbts.com)

A plant trademark is a legal right to a monopoly on a name or symbol affiliated with a particular plant...

Plant Patents and Trademarks

There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)

invalid@example.com (togata57) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 23:01:42 +0000

Whoa!
Fascinating article--rich multi-layered food for thought.

There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)

plant donor and locality nomenclature

invalid@example.com (Nuno Dias) — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 12:16:03 +0000

Hello,

I'm a succulent collector. I see people online posting pictures of their plants and they often indicate the source, ie., who they got the plants from, prefixed with an 'Ex.' I tried looking online and I have no idea where this abbreviation comes from. Latin 'ex' with no dot, used in complex author names, seems to me to be a different thing.

Some collectors claim that they maintain specimens directly cloned from field specimens and add the locality details to the plant description....

plant donor and locality nomenclature

Latin names of colours

invalid@example.com (wcutler) — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 05:27:22 +0000

This chart came up on my Facebook feed. If it's not visible to most of you, I'll remove the posting.
This is the accompanying text, translated by Google:
Latin colors
If you've discovered a species and are thinking of naming it based on the color of your representatives, here's a vast list of Latin colors.
If you haven't found out (yet), still, take a good look at these Latin colors, because you'll better understand the scientific names when they appear....

Latin names of colours

Every Friday, scientists unite to save the sweet potato

invalid@example.com (Junglekeeper) — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 07:57:43 +0000

Every Friday, scientists unite to save the sweet potato | National Post

Researchers compile world's largest inventory of known plant species

invalid@example.com (Junglekeeper) — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 07:54:42 +0000

Researchers compile world's largest inventory of known plant species

Call to restore Indigenous names for plants and animals

invalid@example.com (Junglekeeper) — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 12:24:01 +0000

Call to restore Indigenous names for plants and animals

Proper names?

invalid@example.com (sgbotsford) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 18:56:33 +0000

Problem 1:

A plant wholesaler, who uses only botanical and no common names, except for named cultivars and trademarks has a listing

Euonymus nana 'Turkestanica'

The plant List (https://theplantlist.org) doesn't have a species nana. It does have nanus.

There is a variety turkestanicus.

Now my newbie understanding of nomenclature is that their listing indicates that Turkestanica is a named cultivar of the species E. nana. But the lack of a 'nana' on the plant list, and the...

Proper names?

Rosemary is not a rosemary, rules RHS - it's a sage

invalid@example.com (wcutler) — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 20:07:35 +0000

Rosemary is not a rosemary, rules RHS - it's a sage, as they tell gardeners...

Rosemary is not a rosemary, rules RHS - it's a sage

Article: How new plant species get their names

invalid@example.com (Junglekeeper) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 07:12:58 +0000

How new plant species get their names

Bignonia or Dolichandra?

invalid@example.com (RAC.Hawaii) — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 23:43:35 +0000

I entered this forum while trying to determine a correct botanical name for a bignoniaceous plant on The Plant List. In this venue, the Google images led me to photos posted by the UBC Botanical Garden and a thread started some years ago by someone named Miriam. The plant I am working with was acquired from the Hortus Botanicus botanical garden in Amsterdam, back in 1976, where it had the label Bignonia argyreoviolescens. We've grown it here in Hawaii since then, and a few...

Bignonia or Dolichandra?

Binomial nomenclature question

invalid@example.com (Junglekeeper) — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 03:56:19 +0000

I see various references to Citrus kinokuni mukakukishu. Is this a sloppy way of writing Citrus kinokuni 'Mukakukishu' or Citrus kinokuni var. mukakukishu? If so, which is it?

Eplanation of name - botanical term

invalid@example.com (dafo) — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 20:10:02 +0000

When I search for plants names there is sometimes (L.) Osbeck beside the latin name. For instance Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck. Can somebody explain a bit what this (L.) Osbeck stands for and what is referring to?

ICBN H4

invalid@example.com (ophioglossum) — Thu, 31 May 2018 19:34:12 +0000

I am puzzled by article H4 from the Hybrids appendix. The example makes it worse.

H.4.1. When all the parent taxa can be postulated or are known, a nothotaxon is circumscribed so as to include all individuals recognizably derived from the crossing of representatives of the stated parent taxa (i.e. not only the F1 but subsequent filial generations and also back-crosses and combinations of these).

Ex.1. The names Oenothera ×drawertii Renner ex Rostański...

ICBN H4

status change to forma, or not?

invalid@example.com (ophioglossum) — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 18:47:29 +0000

The name Dryopteris filix-mas forma incisa is attributed by various authors to (Moore) Hayek, Flora von Steiermark. Hayek, however, in this Flora doesn't explicitly mention the rank, but transfers the variety incisa to the genus Dryopteris: "γ incisa (Moore) Hay."

Am right to think that this does not constititue a status change from var to forma?

The listing of subtaxa under filix-mas is introduced by the sentence: "Nach dem Grade der...

status change to forma, or not?

Use of the terms subspecies and variety

invalid@example.com (wcutler) — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 21:06:28 +0000

Daniel Mosquin posted a link to this document in a Botany Photo of the Day posting, and I thought it was worth saving in this forum.
On The Use Of The Terms Subspecies And Variety
It's a long read.

Daniel also quoted the definition from the USDA’s National Plant Materials Program Manual (4th ed.):

The terms “subspecies” and...

Use of the terms subspecies and variety

Naming of two azaleas

invalid@example.com (wcutler) — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 21:55:13 +0000

Not a question, just an interesting (to me, anyway) link. This "Journal American Rhododendron Society" article, "What are those Azaleas?", while about the naming of two specific azalea rhododendrons, goes into great detail about the naming authorities and rules, and how they applied over time to the naming of Rhododendron stenopetalum and Rhododendron mucronatum (Or Is It R. ripense?).

JARS...

Naming of two azaleas

Reference for botanical suffixes?

invalid@example.com (wcutler) — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 18:54:29 +0000

There were comments on the Botany Photo of the Day for Bahiopsis laciniata regarding the meaning of the suffix part of the name.

I’ve been looking for an online reference that gives definitions of botanical suffixes. One that I use for botanical terms, Dictionary of Botanical Epithets, only defines a suffix as part of a plant name,...

Reference for botanical suffixes?

Differences between Picea and Abies?

invalid@example.com (GreenLarry) — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 23:09:33 +0000

In a nutshell how does one differentiate between these 2 very similar genera of conifer?