Different codes (and eudicots)

[Ken Kinman]

Philip and Curtis,
      The rare exceptions you mentioned are precisely the reason I said that
it is *relatively* easy to distinguish monocots from dicots, and that a
combination of characters is needed to be sure.
      But we are going to run into the same kinds of exceptions and mosaic
evolution in distinguishing the  eudicots from other dicots.   And the only
morphological character we have (pollen) is microscopic (even if we are
lucky and the plants happen to be pollinating at the time), and intermediate
types will blur the boundary (and highly derived types could cause confusion
as well).  That only leaves genetic sequencing, and that is available only
to an elite few who have the access and funding.  And even then, I know from
experience that molecular "intermediates" are just as confusing, and blur
the boundaries just as much, as morphological ones.
      Sorry guys, but I'll stick with the monocot-dicot dichotomy as the
primary division, even with those rare exceptions (which would be far easier
to detect than the eudicot exceptions and mozaic intermediates).  And I'm
even more convinced that this is the best course after seeing Peter's long
list of possible synapomorphies for monocots.
      Even as an evolutionary biologist interested in such things as the
eudicot clade, I see no need to throw in a lot of unnecessary confusion and
complexity into the formal parts of classifications.  If strict cladists
want to go to such extremes to avoid an occasional paraphyletic group (which
I render semi-paraphyletic anyway), there is apparently nothing I can say to
dissuade you.  But even Rich Pyle (who defended the PhyloCode) agrees that
it would be prudent to leave genera out of the PhyloCode "experiment" until
we better know how it will work or not work.
                           -----Ken Kinman
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