Different codes - in support of the phylode

[Thomas Lammers]

At 11:04 AM 10/19/00 +0200, you wrote:

>Botanists are already using a host of unofficial rankless non-linneaen
>names for important clades, such as paleoherbs, eudicots, core eudicots,
>Rosids I through III etc. Wouldn't it be better to have a formalised set
>of rules like the Phylocode before this new name-jungle grows too dense?

IMO, no.  As long as they are informal, they can come and go as our
knowledge of phylogeny grows and changes.  I've made the argument that our
knowledge of *any* group's phylogeny is still too fluid for codified
names.  Such a level of knowledge demands a very casual approach to
naming.  Once names are formalized and codified, they are effectively
carved in stone.  A name validly published under a Code may fall from use
and languish in synonymy but it NEVER GOES AWAY.

I repeat my concern: our ability to correctly infer patterns of evolution
is so imprecise and limited that any code based explicitly on phylogeny per
force will generate many many new synonyms in a short time.

Frankly, if the nomenclature governed by the PhyloCode was strictly based
in English or other non-Latin language, or was otherwise immediately
distinguishable to even the layman's eye as different from "scientific"
names, my objections would cease.  If phylogenists want to codify rules
governing how one applies names like "Eudicot" "Rosid II" and "Paleoherb",
I have no objection whatsoever.  My opposition is largely predicated on a
desire to avoid confusion with names governed by the ICBN, and to nip in
the bud any future attempts to do away with traditional
nomenclature.  Non-Latin names for clades would accomplish that.


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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