Cyperales or Juncales?

[Peter Stevens]

>Ken,


As my 16 y.o. son would say, "whatever floats your boat, dad".

(I don't know what this translates to in different parts of the
world, and I am not sure I want to know...)

There is no priority above the rank of family.

The question as to whether there is one or ten orders is basically
sterile; it is lumping and splitting, basically a debate without any
substantive content, although it may impinge on memorization.
Whatever we decide to do in our infinite wisdom, it will not affect
what my students learn next term, because they are taught straight
from the tree, the best hypothesis of relationships there is (and if
there is no consensus, they are taught that, too). WHAT MATTERS IS
THE PHYLOGENY AND THE CHARACTERS, If we can't agree on a set of names
then a) phylocode proponents (Ken, secretly, perhaps?  ;) ) will all
be very happy, b) those who see taxonomists as  having an inordinate
interest in names will have their belief confirmed.

It is up to us.

P.



>Dear All,
>     The APG (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) recognizes an Order Poales sensu
>lato (including all the Glumiflorae orders and Bromeliales as well).  I even
>started using Poales sensu lato after Peter Stevens posted on the updated
>APG site a couple of months ago.
>     However, I used a more traditional classification (in 1994), and now
>that I have been digging deeper, I think I would prefer to stick with that
>approach, with separate Orders Bromeliales, Hydatellales, Xyridales,
>Typhales, Cyperales, and Poales (sensu stricto).
>     In 1994 I used the name Cyperales for sedges, rushes, and thurnia (3
>families), and stated that it included Juncales (and the APG still
>recognizes this as a clade).  However, Reveal seems to prefer the older name
>Juncales over Cyperales (when they are combined in the same order), while I
>(among others) prefer Cyperales.  Is there anything in the ICBN which
>*mandates* priority for ordinal names?  If not, would most botanists prefer
>Cyperales or Juncales?
>     ---------  Ken Kinman
>
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