Cj, thanks for the great post!! It seems difficult to get some to go beyond the pot plant stage of the orchid hobby. There is a more advanced world out there which I would hope everyone would eventually advance to.
Let's talk about plant naming. It appears there might be some confusion on the subject. Plant naming conventions are controlled by the International Convention of Botanical Nomenclature. They are the rules for naming plants. The rules are established and revised every few years by a meeting of the international committee.
Under ICBN are established ICRA's (International Cultivar Registration Authorities). These are the groups that register cultivars. For example, The American Hosta Society is the ICRA for Hostas and the American Hemerocallis Society is the ICRA for Hemerocallis (Daylily). The RHS is the ICRA for Orchids. The ICRA manages the registrations to assure cultivar names conform to the codes, there are no duplicates, etc.
The ICRA has no authority to move plants around within genuses or to change the names of species (or even horticultural cultivars unless they made some dastardly mistake initially).
Botanical names originate from taxonomic authorities, usually specialized botanists who follow rigorous rules of science in establishing and revising the ranks and assignments of taxonomy. As knowledge and techniques advance, so do assignments.
The ICRA's are slow to follow taxonomy changes to be sure they are stable and not challenged by other scientists. However, unless the ICRA's eventually make changes the horticultural interests will diverge from taxonomy science over time.
So don't blame RHS for changing plant names including genus designations. They are just following the botanical system usually several years behind the science.
This international system is vital for all of us to have the same naming system for plants so we can communicate.
Those pot plant nurseries (all over the world including the US) make a lot of money selling cheap plants at big box stores, but they do us all a disservice by ignoring the registration system. There is no organized system for those pot plants. Before you buy another NOID, consider that you are getting a cheap cultivar and it is not worth even what you paid for it because there is no record of what it is. You are just contributing to chaos for no reason but cheap pot plants. Yeah, I 'm a snob, too! Glad I'm not alone, Cj.
Quote from ICBN:
"The rules that govern scientific naming in botany (including phycology and mycology) are revised at Nomenclature Section meetings at successive International Botanical Congresses."
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