Fwd: PhyloCode prefix/suffix?

[Thomas Lammers]

At 08:40 AM 10/24/00 -0400, you wrote:

>My own preferred approach would have been to require a standard
>symbol at the beginning or end of PhyloCode names--for example a
>slash at the beginning of the name, as used by David Baum and
>coworkers.  Thus, /Lamiaceae would be a clade name governed by the
>PhyloCode, whereas Lamiaceae would be a family name governed by the
>ICBN.  In many cases, the name would refer to the same set of species
>under both codes, but in some cases it would not.  For example, not
>all circumscriptions of Lamiaceae under the current system are
>monophyletic.  I have pushed for this sort of solution to the problem
>that Tom and Finn point out, but the majority of the PhyloCode
>advisory group disagreed.

I think it's a good one -- though aren't you worried about being confused
with a website?  Seriously, I could live with an initial slash.

  : - )

An asterisk might be nice, too, but many floristic works use that to denote
non-native species in checklists.  How about an intitial exclamation mark,
e.g., !Campanulaceae -- give it a little pep and excitement, and imply that
because of our confidence in phylogenetic reconstruction, we're REALLY sure
this is a group worth naming.

Seriously, would it really be that bad to just forego Latin based
nomenclature and go with English?  There's always a contingent that wants
to do away with Latin diagnoses in the ICBN.  Its already sort of comoon to
turn formal names in anglicized common names -- campanulads, composites,
magnoliads.  Why not just pick a suffix no one has used in a Code and use
it to create English names?


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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