On 2 Jun 08, at 10:23, Richard wrote: > How in the world do we keep up [with name changes]? Personally, I think it's a lost cause for gardeners to try to keep up, at least for the near future. Botanical taxonomy as a field of scientific endeavour gives every evidence of being in a state of active flux, thanks to cladistic analysis of the results of DNA sequencing. (We may be approaching the point where plant identification according to the new paradigm is impossible without doing DNA analysis. Portable backpack DNA sequencer, anyone?) IMHO (in my humble opinion) it is better for gardeners -- for such we are -- to stipulate a single reference and use that consistently until, in a few generations, the dust will have settled and our descendants can then move to whatever names have survived the test of time. I also remind everyone that taxonomy is not legislative; it's opinion, and as long as a name is validly published, it's a valid name. There is no requirement to try to follow every graduate student who overhauls some well-known group of plants in order to justify his PhD. In the fullness of time, the botanical community will reach a consensus on which renamings make sense and which do not. There's also some strange logic among the taxonomic community that I have serious doubts about. The example that comes to mind is the assertion that if we have two taxa, A & B, and B is clearly descended from A, but also clearly distinct, B *must* be a sub-taxon of A. This logic is an extreme expression of the idea that the hierarchy of botanical taxa should match the evolutionary hierarchy. In my opinion (which being free, is worth exactly what you paid for it) this overlooks the view of evolution not as a simple tree but as a thicket of interlacings where groups of plants separate, and may later rejoin. It also flies in the face that A & B may be intersterile and meet all the other criteria normally used to define "distinct taxa." If a small population B of taxon A becomes isolated from the main distribution, it has every right to evolve in its own way into something else while A itself remains stuck in the evolutionary mud, so to speak. "Freedom to Evolve!" The rallying cry of the revolutionary plant! -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island