I raised this a while ago (on this forum I think !) and from memory of what the experts said then I would just suggest that you cannot necessarily assign a subspecies for all species that have them - assignment of subspecies means that significant field work has been done and the existence of sub-species demonstrated - it does not necessarily mean the species has been studied in the field in all its habitats so all possible sub-species may not have been identified and, more importantly, a particular sample of unknown provenance may not conform to any known subspecies description. Reply / forward from John Crellin http://www.floralwiki.co.uk/ the new bit of http://www.floralimages.co.uk/ -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of carlobal@netzero.net Sent: 07 April 2007 12:08 To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [pbs] How names work; was RE: Arum Despite Jim's wonderful explanation there is a shorter answer: If a species has subspecies, they can ALL be referred to by the specific name, BUT the more preferrable alternative, especially for people like us, is to name each to subspecific level--it's a further level of accuracy. If using subspecies, then ALL should be named to that level, or you won't know what you've got... Carlo Carlo A. Balistrieri The Gardens at Turtle Point Tuxedo Park, NY 10987 Zone 6 (845.351.2049) Visit: http://www.botanicalgardening.com/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php