just a bit more information on names:
First, a clarification of the Example N°2 in the article above: In order to avoid confusions (I saw this discussion in another forum!) we must say that giving a name to a clon, as for example aunt 'Queenie' and aunt 'Leonie' also has a rule to be followed: If you give a name, only to differenciate a plant in your collection from another one, you add the name you want, but it is valid only for you. The name becomes official ONLY when that particular plant is awarded by an Orchid Society and allowed to receive a clonal name. This name belong to this plant and should be kept for divisions or mericlones of this plant. For this reason, you can see several nurseries all over the world selling plants with the same name, e.g. Cattleya skinnery 'Heiti Jacobs' FCC/
AOS - This was an exceptional plant, which was awarded and received a clonal name, then it was mericloned and made affordable to almost every one.
Sometimes, as "Aboutorchids" has said, one find teh same plant with two or more different names, e.g. (1) Cattleya aurantica and/or Guarianthe aurantica; or (2) Dendrobium delicatulum and/or Dendrobium minutum and/or Dendrobium nanarauticola and/or Dendrobium parvulum.
In both cases, the names are considered synonyms, however only one of them is considered valid for the taxonomy of the plant.
- In example (1) the genus of the plant has changed. This is based on the work of a botanist (taxonomist, phylogeneticist, or systematicist) who has reviewed the genus of the plant, and has found enough morphological evidences to separate the plant into a different genus - note that these changes are not always immediatelly accepted, and sometimes (based on further work) they are reverted.
- In example (2) we have a group of names referring to the same species. to make it simple, we can say that the same espicies (maybe different varieties) were described at different timepoints and given with different names. Which one is vaild? For the taxonomy of the plant, the rule is very simple: the first name given to the species! Sometimes the first name given included the plant in the wrong genus...
well, very easy, the plant receives the name of the correct genus, but keeps the species name given the first time (with some changes in the ending of the word, based of latin grammar)
Furthermore, you can also see that some plants has some extra parts in their name:
- subsp. xxxx: this is the Sub-especies name. A population has enough characteristics to separate it from the rest, but not enough to be re-classified as a diefferent species, e.g. Dendrobium purpureum subsp. purpureum and Dendrobium purpureum subsp. candidulum - it is also valid just to name it as Dendrobium purpureum purpureum
- var. minutum : this is the variety of the plant. This mean that a certain population of this species (Note: Varieties are given ONLY to species, not to hybrids!) has several morphological features that separate it from the rest, but these features are not enough to separate them into a new subspecies. (the limits between variety and subspecies are not always clear, and are ground of discussion!)
- f. alba: this is the "form", which normally means a particular colour feature of the flower.
- subgenus: same as for subsp, but at genus level.
- Catasetum xtapiriceps: the x before the species name, means that this plant is an hybrid, however you can see the name is not writen in capitals (as normally accepted for hybrids). This mean that the plant is a natural occuring hybrid In the case os Catasetum xtapirices, it is accepted as a natural hybrid between Ctsm. macrocarpum and Ctsm. pileatum
Assignment of "variety" or "form" level followes the same taxonomic rules as for species and genus: it is valid ONLY if there is a description in latin in a publication, which is accesible to the public and a specimen of this "variety" or "form" is kept in a recognized Herbarium! Another important point to mention is that ONLY morphological characteristics should be used for assignement of Genus, species, sub. species and variety, and colour features can be used ONLY for "form" (in th epraxis you will find that there is a lot of confusion, and you will see "form" called "variety" and viceversa)
There are still many many variations in the names but I think the ones mentioned in the article above and the additions I have made here, are those most commonly found.
Taxonomy and naming of plants can be sometimes quite annoying if you need to change the names of your plants every now and then, and sometimes becomin quite difficult to follow or accept new changes (like Laelias transferred to Sophronitis). However, it is a necessary and very important "part of this game"
oops! this became quite long...
