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Issue 6 of 'International Rock Gardener'

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Maggi Young:

--- Quote ---however, what i think would be interesting and helpful is to see abstracts or discussions of some of these papers, at a length and level of complexity that would make them accessible to average gardeners; if we were able to see what some of the points are that have led someone to propose (or deny) a change, we might be able to make decisions based on something other than habit or 'preference'; i see this all the time in cactaceae taxonomy, which has been very controversial (some claim political, even!) people 'choose' to stick with old names, just because, or use the 'latest' names, because they were told to, but rarely know much about what the real issues are..i would love to see some short articles on specific genera, species etc, preferably from more than one viewpoint, regarding why they should or should not be changed...
--- End quote ---

 That would surely be of great interest to many of us "average gardeners", Cohan: Forgive me if I am sceptical that there is much chance of getting the taxonomists to provide such accessible information to the public.
In an area where there is such an emphasis on formal publication of data/papers and an undeniable level of "competition" I fear that there would be little enthusiasm among those busy  revising nomenclature for such projects..... I would, need it be stated, be more than happy to be proved wrong!

cohan:

--- Quote from: Maggi Young on July 03, 2010, 10:36:33 AM ---
--- Quote ---however, what i think would be interesting and helpful is to see abstracts or discussions of some of these papers, at a length and level of complexity that would make them accessible to average gardeners; if we were able to see what some of the points are that have led someone to propose (or deny) a change, we might be able to make decisions based on something other than habit or 'preference'; i see this all the time in cactaceae taxonomy, which has been very controversial (some claim political, even!) people 'choose' to stick with old names, just because, or use the 'latest' names, because they were told to, but rarely know much about what the real issues are..i would love to see some short articles on specific genera, species etc, preferably from more than one viewpoint, regarding why they should or should not be changed...
--- End quote ---

 That would surely be of great interest to many of us "average gardeners", Cohan: Forgive me if I am sceptical that there is much chance of getting the taxonomists to provide such accessible information to the public.
In an area where there is such an emphasis on formal publication of data/papers and an undeniable level of "competition" I fear that there would be little enthusiasm among those busy  revising nomenclature for such projects..... I would, need it be stated, be more than happy to be proved wrong!

--- End quote ---

i'm sure you are right, maggi! what might be possible is for amateurs with access to some already published papers to provide synopses...and/or some generous authors to post papers online..i agree its not likely to happen too often, but i have seen a few over the years, so hope springs eternal! ;D

Lesley Cox:
I agree with all your above comments Maggi and while I can repect the work done by taxonomists, I don't think those people can object if the general gardening public (95% of whom don't give a damn anyway, about names and would be hard pressed to know a verbena from a viola) take not a blind bit of notice when Dodecatheon is placed within Primula. As far as I'm aware it has never been the object of any taxonomist to inform the public in any meaningful way; rather it is their object to carry out an academic exercise in respect of certain plants. They may or may not have science on their side but common sense and common knowledge guide our lives and experience, not (sometimes very obscure) science.

Sometime back in the last half of the last century, there was a note from, I think, Chris Brickell that the International .... (you know, those who make the nomenclature rules), had decided that allowance should be made in some circumstances for common usage where the plant concerned was well established over a very long time, with one name, even if recent work had decided to give it a different name. So, taxonomists or the Plantfinder aside, I shall continue to grow dodecatheons and primulas - separately.

David Nicholson:

--- Quote from: Lesley Cox on July 03, 2010, 11:05:15 PM ---............So, taxonomists or the Plantfinder aside, I shall continue to grow dodecatheons and primulas - separately.

--- End quote ---

Me too.

Lvandelft:
When reading the last, very informative again, IRG I wanted to open and download this and the other issues to read them whenever I am not on-line. (Used Mozilla Firefox)
Everything went o.k., but the February issue just opened and loaded till about 700 Kb and then stopped. The other issues gave no problems.
Had to restart and tried several times again. Did not work!!
When writing these lines I realized that I maybe should try to do it with Micr. Int. Expl.  
Guess what…. now it worked ??? ???

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