Friday, February 19, 2010

Errata, Taxonomy

This is a minor, housekeeping-related post, to which you do not need to pay any attention if you don't want to.

The following changes have been made to PATSP posts recently:

  • The blogger Aerelonian's name was spelled as Aerolonian in previous references; this is now spelled correctly.
  • The plant previously identified as Aloe 'Dapple Green' is presently thought to be Aloe 'Dorian Black;' names have been changed to reflect this. (UPDATE: Name subsequently changed to 'Doran Black')
  • Due to a plant tag which used a font where lowercase "G" and "Q" looked the same, I have been thinking that Asplenium antiquum was Asplenium antiguum for a really long time. References to the plant are now spelled correctly.
  • I was misspelling Bougainvillea as "Bouganvillea;" posts have been updated with the correct spelling.
  • Previous mentions of Cissus voineriana have been updated, and spelling corrected, and now give the plant's name as Tetrastigma voinierianum.
  • The Dracaena deremensis variety for which I had no name and was calling "Warneckei Compacta" is now thought to be, probably, 'Jade Jewel;' posts have been edited to reflect this new belief but may change again at some point.
  • There were also a couple references to Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckii,' which have been changed to 'Warneckei,' though one does see both fairly often, and I'm not necessarily positive that the -ei ending is correct.
  • The plant I was calling Kalanchoe daigremontiana is probably more correctly Bryophyllum daigremontianum; although I find this personally distasteful for some reason, I went ahead and changed that too.
  • Ludisia discolor was renamed as Haemaria discolor, which appeared to be the current "correct" name. And then it was changed back, when Andrew told me that no, it wasn't the correct name. So that whole thing was all a big waste of time.
  • Peperomia pereskiifolia was previously identified as Peperomia verticillata, which was wrong. (I always thought the pictures didn't look quite right. . . .) This is now fixed.
  • Philodendron 'Imperial Red' was previously misidentified as P. 'Black Cardinal.' This has been corrected.
  • Earlier posts had Scaevola misspelled as Scaveola, and have been corrected.
  • The Solenostemon scutellarioides variety 'Dappled Apple' was called 'Dapple Green' in the Solenostemon scutellarioides profile, because I glitched and confused it with the Aloe cultivar 'Dapple Green,' see above, which the name 'Dapple Green' wasn't right for the Aloe either and basically this means that any time I call something 'Dapple Green,' you should not believe me.
  • Yucca elephantipes has been corrected to Yucca guatemalensis, which is currently the correct name. As far as I know.
  • References to Zygocactus have been replaced with Schlumbergera.
Spelling errors in photo filenames cannot be corrected without deleting the photo, changing the file's name in my computer, and then re-uploading the photo to the computer. Which, frankly, is too much work for something nobody is going to notice anyway. So I didn't do that. Also, link names, once established by Blogger, cannot be altered without deleting the post and then re-posting it, which would lose me all the comments on the pages in question and would make a hash of any links to that page, so those will still be wrong also.


Changes NOT made to PATSP posts recently:
  • I did NOT change references to Dracaena deremensis to Dracaena fragrans, even though I'm occasionally seeing people saying stuff like "Dracaena fragrans Deremensis Group," and this makes me think that maybe I ought to. But they still look like different species to me. So I'm not ready to go there yet.
  • I also did NOT change Dizygotheca elegantissima to the more correct Schefflera elegantissima, though I'm at least trying to include both names when I post about the plant. I am not ready to give up "Dizygotheca."
  • Ivynettle says Dracaena marginata is D. reflexa var. angustifolia, which strikes me as being just crazy talk.
  • Plants in the genus Fittonia may or may not be given the correct species names; I see F. verschaffeltii, F. argyroneura, F. albivenis, and maybe one or two other names being thrown around with wild abandon and am completely unable to make sense of any of them. If I figure it out at some point, I'll let you know. UPDATE: Since writing this, I have become more or less convinced that Fittonia albivenis is the correct name for cultivated varieties of Fittonia.
  • Pilea 'Moon Valley' is sometimes presented as a cultivar of P. involucrata or P. mollis. I have no good guess on its ancestry, and decline to take a side, so I'm just calling it P. 'Moon Valley' for now.
  • When it comes to the Aloe vera / Aloe barbadensis fight, I am firmly in the barbadensis camp, though that doesn't mean I'm convinced I'm right, or even that I'm convinced that they're not separate species (haven't really investigated yet). Mostly it means that I like saying "barbadensis." UPDATE: Sadly, I guessed wrong, and A. vera is correct.
  • I am so far resisting the pressure to change Solenostemon scutellarioides to Plectranthus scutellarioides, mostly because, as with Dracaena deremensis / D. fragrans, it just doesn't look like a Plectranthus to me.


12 comments:

Aaerelon said...

You are very particular! Although I'm extremely offended I guess I can accept the correction... I love that a list of scientific name spellings is started with my alias. :)

Jean Campbell said...

It's very nice to see it all corrected, but from my point of view if I can comprehend what you meant I'm not going to spend time wondering when you'll make corrections.

Sometimes when I am searching for something to make sure of the spelling, I am amazed at commercial sites with obvious misspellings as well as errors in grammar.

Andrew said...

I hadn't heard Haemaria used (at all) so I did a little reading after I saw this post and Found that the IOSPE Page lists Haemaria as a synonym. The UBC Botanical Garden mentions that Ludisia was the name given first, and "the first validly published name takes priority" (backed in the Kew Bulletin in 1970 apparently).

I'll be sticking with Ludisia discolor unless you've seen something (very) recently to suggest that the name's wrong?

Autumn Belle said...

It is good to be a perfectionist but my head is already spinning with the many facts and foreign spelling here. I think I'll settle for some pictures instead. However, having said that, I have nevertheless enjoyed coming over here and reading your post.

mr_subjunctive said...

Aerelonian:

You are very particular!

Indeed.

Although I'm extremely offended I guess I can accept the correction...

Well, if you didn't notice it originally, then I suppose I could change it back . . .

NellJean:

It's not that I think it's so important that everybody needs to know about it as that I spent like three or four hours doing it this morning, and it seemed important at the time, and you never know, somebody might care. So.

Though I do in fact genuinely care about people being able to find the site through correctly-spelled searches. And just, you know, getting stuff right.

Andrew:

What? DAMN IT. I don't remember where I saw this that seemed authoritative enough to find-and-replace for, but I was convinced. Now I have to change it back. There goes the rest of the night.

mr_subjunctive said...

Autumn Belle:

Well, I said you didn't have to care. Glad you enjoyed something in there anyway.

Andrew said...

Now I feel bad ;) ...but it's for the best (and now I don't have to go and change every reference to it too).

Look on the bright side - at least now when people Google Haemaria they'll still find reference to it here.

MrBrownThumb said...

This post is all kinds of awesome. I always hate when I either misspell a pics file name or something else is wrong in it because you really can't edit the post without removing everything and starting over.

But I have discovered that if you switch to the new post editor it makes things easier because you can insert a pic any place in a post that you want. If you don't like the new post editor you can switch back to the old one once you've made the changes.

Just an FYI

Ivynettle said...

I wish it were just crazy talk... but the latest edition of the Zander Dictionary of Plant Names (which appears to be treated as the ultimate authority on the topic in this part of the world) said all kinds of unsettling stuff, like Dracaena deremensis = D. fragrans and D. marginata = D. reflexa var. angustifolia, and Solenostemon scutellarioides = Plectranthus scutellarioides. I kind of wish I hadn't bought it and lived on in blissful ignorance.

Though to be honest... while I like knowing the correct names and use them in my lists and such, I don't use them consistently, either. Just don't roll off the tongue like the old ones do. :)

mr_subjunctive said...

MrBrownThumb:

It's not so much moving the pictures that causes me problems, it's the uploading them in the first place. Multiple folders, multiple photos -- it takes a long time.

Ivynettle:

It's not that I can't believe two of those three changes. I don't like them, but I can see how it could be true, even if I'd rather it weren't. But: Dracaena marginata? I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to wait for them to change it again, on that one. No way is D. marginata a variant of D. reflexa.

Nancy in Sun Lakes AZ said...

Thanks for a very interesting post! Speaking as a retired library cataloguer, I appreciate and applaud your efforts! To me, there is entirely too much "Oh, what does it matter?" on the Internet. If you are searching for something, it DOES matter!

Joseph said...

barbadensis barbadensis barbadensis... I like to say it too. Blows "vera" right out of the water. Best scientific name of all time, though, is still: Liquidambar styraciflia. Can't be beat.