Jim McK.,

Good idea! The weather here is definitely not conducive to outdoor
activities -- too cold and too windy. Sorry, Diane. Back to the keyboard.

1. A Geophyte is whatever we define it to be. I define the concept very
broadly: A plant having some sort of subterranean storage organ and an
herbaceous, perennial habit. Since I'm not a taxonomist, you can take my
"definition" with a grain of salt. (I've noticed that some real
taxonomists in the past have used conflicting concepts as invitations to

I think the usual definition, limiting "geophytes" to bulbs, corms, tubers,
or rhizomes, is a bit narrow. Jim Waddick's Paeonia, some of Mary Sue's
Delphinium, lots of things with "fat" roots, surely ought to be
included. I like to say something like, "geophytes and friends" for
suitable discussion topics. The term "geophyte" is, after all, not a
phylogenetic classification but a pragmatic one.

2. Species are human conceptual constructs too, by and large. Those
obvious species, easily perceived, are not the problems of course.

For a lot of biologists, I suspect the true but unspoken definition is
something like "I can't actually define species, but I know one when I see
one." There are a few, like Pierre Felice Ravenna, who see new species
wherever they look. There may be matters of ego gratification involved, or
more serious motivations like getting tenure or a promotion. All sorts of
things can help define "species."

The definition that goes something like "a species is an interbreeding
population" bothers most people, who seem to read into it the word
"potentially"; i.e., "a species is a [potentially] interbreeding
population" which confuses the devil out of things where plants are
concerned. The orchids present an obvious case in point, with myriads of
complex, multiply (adverb of "multiple") intergeneric hybrids made in
cultivation. Remember: where species are concerned, cultivation does not
count! I like the approach that starts with a species as an identifiable
group of individuals, sharing certain traits in common. You can elaborate
from there.

This also opens up the notion of reticulated evolution, or interspecific,
possibly intergeneric, even inter-kingdom transfers of genetic
material. For instance, the human genome is full of relict viruses. How
do you want to handle that? This just shows how far Mother Nature will go
to frustrate human attempts to organize things into neat pigeonholes.

Jim Shields (a.k.a. Jim S; i.e., not Jim W and not Jim McK)
in central Indiana (USA)

At 05:00 PM 1/23/2004 -0500, you wrote:

*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA

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