Hyacinthaceae
Shoal Creek Succulents (Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:34:33 PST)

How does DNA assist with determining the correct genus? My conception of
using DNA would be that it clearly defines what a plant should be - but it
sounds like botanists still use plant characteristics to make their final
determination. I should think that DNA alone would unlock the mystery.

-----Original Message-----
From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]
On Behalf Of Mary Sue Ittner
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 6:33 PM
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [pbs] Hyacinthaceae

This family seems still to be in flux and isn't even considered a
family anymore universally since it is now included in
Asparagaceae by some. If you look at the Kew database you will see
that they are not accepting a lot of the proposed Scilla changes.
Some are being used and some not.

In J. Manning, P. Goldblatt & M.F. Fay, "A revised generic synopsis
of Hyacinthaceae in sub-Saharan Africa, including new combinations
and the new tribe Pseudoprospereae", Edinburgh Journal of Botany
60(3): 533-568 (2004) the authors proposed sinking Albuca along with
Dipcadi, Galtonia, Neopatersonia, and Pseudogaltonia into
Ornithogalum. Further work by researchers at SANBI, the Missouri
Botanical Garden and Kew has not supported all of these changes and
Albuca, Dipcadi, and Pseudogaltonia have been reinstated.

Having recently been lucky enough to be on one of Cameron McMaster's
botanical tours in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, with John Manning,
we talked about this. There was some friendly resistance to
recognizing the "Galtonia" species we saw as Ornithogalums.
Apparently now that Albuca has been reinstated, Manning is now
proposing moving some of the species that were in Ornithogalum into
Albuca. The yellow and white ones with green stripes are now to be
Albuca. We saw a number of plants that fit in this category. It seems
like it wasn't that long ago that I was giving the proposed
Ornithogalum names for Albuca species and now I need to learn the
proposed Albuca names for some of the Ornithogalum species. They
continue to be listed in most data bases as Ornithogalum.

An Australian on our list, Julian Slade, in the past has been a
wonderful resource for the name changes for Hyacinthaceae. If he
reads this post, perhaps he could provide us with some up to date
information.

Mary Sue