Misnomers

[Sean Edwards]

The 20 February contribution by Thomas Lammers, mentioning the
misnomer Tridens flavus, added to a small list of "incorrect" plant
species names that I have.

These have generally cropped up by word of mouth (and so some may
well be wrong, or rather right), but no doubt somebody else has also
accumulated such a list, or there is some publication somewhere where
they have been properly accredited. There must be hundreds of the
things.

Does anybody out there have such a list, or could give me a reference,
or could add to my list?

A LIST OF PLANT NAMES THAT ARE "INCORRECT"

Scilla peruviana L.: a European liliaceous plant wrongly thought by
Linnaeus to have come from Peru.

Orobanche alba Stephan ex. Willd.: a broomrape that happened to be
named from the white form, which is not typical (normally yellow
tinged with purple).

Capsicum sinense (= chinense?) Jaques: solanaceous plant whose
native distribution is restricted to South America (plus Central and
West Indies); it was described from specimens cultivated in China.

Toninia aromatica (Sm.) Massal.: a lichen so named because it was
wrongly thought to be aromatic; in fact the type specimen was
received in a scented envelope.

Tridens flavus (L.) Hitchc.: The type of the grass Tridens flavus
has yellow spikelets (hence the name) ... despite the fact that this
is a rare mutant and 99.9% of all individuals have purple spikelets
(common name "Purpletop"). (Thomas G. Lammers: e-mail to TAXACOM, 20
Feb 1998)

Sean

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sean.edwards at man.ac.uk
Sean R. Edwards, Keeper of Botany, The Manchester Museum,
Manchester University, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

'phone: +44 (0)161-275-2671/2;         fax: +44 (0)161-275-2676
web: http://www.man.ac.uk/museum/
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