Those of you who are gardeners first and armchair taxonomists second (if at all) might be asking a question or two about these names Ranunculus ficaria and Ficaria verna. I know I would have been, except that it just happens that I ran across a discussion of these names recently and I now understand what, from a taxonomic point of view, is happening. Most of us, as gardeners, know about the rule of priority: basically, the earliest validly published name is the one to use. If (as it is) Ranunculus ficaria is a validly published name, and if (as it is) the first validly published name for the species in question, what happened to the rule of priority? How does Ranunculus ficaria become Ficaria verna? If the first published species name was ficaria, wouldn't ficaria trump verna? It would, except for one of the basic principles of botanical nomenclature: tautology in the genus and species names is not allowed. In other words, if you establish a genus Ficaria, you cannot have a species in that genus named ficaria. You then use the next validly published name in line, so-to-speak. I have not seen a modern treatment of Ranunculus, but if a genus other than Ficaria is used for the species in question, the species epithet goes back to ficaria. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where global warming isn't so much a concern as local drying. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/