Not to beat a dead horse, but it is interesting to note that neighboring watersheds are by their very nature separated from one another by higher ground (the Continental Divide being an extreme example). This leads to reproductive isolation, which is one way species become differentiated. Great fodder for the ongoing battles between lumpers and splitters, but as you point out so nicely, what the grower wants to know is what sort of environmental conditions he needs to replicate!
On Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 10:50:47 PM EDT, Jane McGary via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
I was unsatisfied with 'basin' for the area surrounding a stream/river
because, as Cody notes, there are a lot of "basins" mapped in the
western USA, and they have quite a different look to me from the photos
of the cuencas submitted with the Hippeastrum book, which appear more
like steep-sided but wide canyons -- in itself a word that may not be
meaningful even to all American English speakers. Possibly the history,
or lack of history, of glaciation has something to do with this? I don't
think of a "basin" as something whose main feature is a river, though
certainly in my part of North America a basin often has streams running
into it during part of the year. If our geological colleague prefers
"watershed" to "drainage," I can see that the former is more technical,
but it might not have meaning to some readers of the English version.
I may just keep the Spanish word. After all, we use loan words from many
languages for land features, such as "arroyo" and "chaparral." Anyone
who is using this book is likely to be a South American who knows what a
cuenca is, or a foreigner who doesn't need to know unless they are in
Bolivia, in which case they can see for themselves. Learning the flora
of most parts of the world entails getting used to some native landform
or vegetation terms.
For people who are in other parts of the world and want to grow the
plants appropriately, information on elevation, soil, steepness, climate
cycle, and moisture are there. I was surprised to learn how many
Hippeastrum species grow in moist places. I haven't seen them in the
wild, and I had a sort of idea that they grew like Rhodophiala or Placea
in Chile and Argentina, in drier situations.
Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA
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