Jane used a locution in her reply on Colchicum which raises a question for me. She wrote: " my sources all list C. sibthorpii as an invalid synonym of C. bivonae" The question concerns this phrase "invalid synonym". Shouldn't we simply say "synonym"? Isn't Colcchicum sibthorpii a validly published name? It may not be the current "correct" name, but it is a validly published name. And plants can have any number of validly published names, can't they? And plants can have invalid names, too - that's where "invalid synonym" might come in handy. Or is Jane telling us that the name Colchicum sibthorpii has somehow been invalidated? Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where Antonio de Bivona-Bernardi's colchicum is esteemed under any name.