naming of plants

Nathan Lange plantsman@comcast.net
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 19:15:46 PST
At 12:55 PM 1/6/2016, you wrote:
>Scientists, much like the rest of the world require names so that 
>they can effectively communicate with each
>other, and to the rest of the world.

There is one behavioral barrier that most people must overcome when 
one's favorite outdated taxonomic names or anatomical terms are 
challenged or replaced by science, i.e. the need to effectively 
communicate with each other. One must continually strive to avoid 
being a victim of the economic theory of sunk cost fallacy: meaning 
that you are much more likely to continue support for a bad decision 
or obsolete idea if you have previously invested emotion, time, 
money, or effort (sunk cost) in it. In fact, this concept applies to 
many aspects of life. An example here would be continued support for 
an outdated name of a plant or plant part even though the botanically 
accepted name is something new. In this case, such support would be 
measured by continued use of the dated name or term. The people most 
susceptible to the sunk cost fallacy in this example frequently seem 
to be those who have written a lot using the outdated names or terms 
in question since they have the most invested emotionally in the 
outdated names and will therefore often be the most vocal defenders 
of the antiquated language in question. Previous emotional investment 
in bad or obsolete ideas invariably clouds our present capacity for 
objective and critical thinking, limiting our ability to move forward 
and communicate effectively.

Not that it really matters for a hobbyist group, but the correct 
grammar of nomenclature is to completely avoid creating plurals of 
genera and families altogether and use a phrase like "many species of 
Scilla," or "many Scilla species," or "many scilla are" instead of 
creating a new word like "scillas." This avoids creating a 
communication problem for someone who has no familiarity with a 
particular genus. Someone new to horticulture or botany might 
incorrectly think there is a genus named "Scillas."

Nathan






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