Policy on naming off plants on the wiki

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:31:04 PST
Mary Sue,

(I think) I've seen some cases on the wiki where plants and names are left where they are but proposed name changes or taxonomic placement have been mentioned in the description. Then even after the wiki is rearranged, links are left to previous names or genera. I love this, even when I don't like the proposed changes. 

I'm hoping that your statement doesn't mean that that practice can't continue. Especially when new DNA sequencing information comes along that triggered the proposed changes.
For example, I like the way the Polyxena is still listed under that name, which follows your policy. But the fact that it has been proposed to be lumped into Lachenalia and the Lachenalia versions of the Polyxena species are listed in the text on the Polyxena page is great, IMHO.

The reason I'm asking is that in a recent paper by Alan Meerow (and others), he presents some additional DNA sequencing results that show that there are 4 species that form either a subgenus within Clinanthus or a genus of their own which is sister to Clinanthus. These are Paramongaia weberbaueri, Clinanthus viridiflorus, Clinanthus mirabilis, and Paramongaia sp. nov. (which looks like it is halfway between a Paramongaia and a C. viridiflorus; all three of these are gorgeous!). If it becomes its own genus it will be called Callithauma and not Paramongaia due to the chronological priority rule.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

On Jan 16, 2013, at 11:54 AM, Mary Sue Ittner wrote:

>  We use 
> the best judgment of our members when listing plant names. The names 
> we use reflect the usage of our members and our best effort to 
> reflect the most widely accepted names and therefore may not reflect 
> recent name changes. An effort will be made to list previous names as 
> synonyms when we adopt name changes of plants that are widely grown 
> and sold under different names.
> 




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