Use of the rank of forma

[Thomas Lammers]

At 09:55 PM 10/1/00 -0400, you wrote:
>IPNI is eliminating everything between the specific epithet and the
>forma.  If the above were a validly published name, they would list
>it in their database as Planta excelsa forma alba -- regardless of how
>it was published.

And in point of fact, that IS the name.  Planta excelsa subsp.
septentrionalis var. virgata f. alba is a *classification*, not a name of a
form.  Art. 24.1: "The name of an infraspecific taxon is a combination of
the name of a species and an infraspecific epithet.  A connecting term is
used to denote the rank.  Art. 24.1 Ex. 1 clarifies this exactly.   That is
why if I treat f. alba as a form of var. septentrionalis instead of var.
virgata, I DO NOT make a new combination.  There ARE NO quadrinomials or
quinquenomials in botany.


Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-7085
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
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