Zygopetalum taxonomy confusion: maculatum vs. intermedium vs. mackaii vs. mackayi
 

Hello all,
I have recently acquired some zygopetalum species.
One of which is a maculatum and the other is an intermedium. Additionally, I’ve been eyeing one listed as mackayi.

Before I bought anymore zygo species though, I have been reading up on zygo taxonomy and it seems that some guides say these species are all the same and that mackayi and intermedium are just synonyms of maculatum. Is this true?

To further complicate things, other sources say maculatum is a distinct species but that mackayi and intermedium are synonymous. Still, a few more guides say mackayi is different from intermedium but the same as maculatum.

I am so confused. Are these all just synonymous? Are some of them synonymous but one of them isn’t? Even more confusing, some sources list both a mackaii and a mackayi.

Super-confusing. When I look these up in Orchidwiz (which attempts to stay on top of things) if I look up Z. maculatum it is a distinct species without qualifiers. I look up Z. intermedium there's a note that Kew considers it synonymous with Z. maculatum. Likewise for Z. mackayi... Kew considers it to be Z. maculatum. But Kew is a major "lumper"... other taxonomic sources do more splitting . Kew leans very heavily on the DNA evidence. Others also include morphology, habitat, etc. (factors that were used before DNA evidence came along) So there may be differences in populations that aren't reflected in the DNA (at least to now) But we are learning more all the time... the current scheme does not take epignetics into account. Clearly these three species, if not synonymous are similar. The science is still evolving. (And will continue to do so as more is learned new questions get raised, that's the nature of the beast) I'm not changing my tags...

I suggest Moe, Larry and Curly and remove all confusion entirely

To avoid confusion, I just go with whatever the tag says. I do get corrected at the orchid society but I really do not care too much as long as I have some identification for the orchids.