[Taxacom] The Index Kewensis we were once Proud of and The PlantList

Sat Sep 13 03:10:43 CDT 2014

We may hope that a substantial group of users realizes
that The Plant List is a work in progress and contains
errors. Of course, there will be many users who don't
realize that and take the list for gospel, but perhaps 
these people could not be helped anyway? The wise 
user will have realized that any authoritative list of names
tends to be relative (as taxonomy is not carved in stone).

This does not apply to mosses. I did not look into this
in any depth, but my impression is that The Plant List just
copied each and every species name in Tropicos and 
promoted it to an "accepted name", including combinations 
with illegitimate generic names (later homonyms). It is not
hard to turn up cases of species that have four "accepted 
names" in The Plant List. It would have been better not to 
include names for mosses, or to declare them all to be
"unresolved names".

Paul

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gurcharan Singh 
  To: Paul van Rijckevorsel 
  Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu 
  Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2014 12:22 AM
  Subject: Re: [Taxacom] The Index Kewensis we were once Proud of and The PlantList

  Thanks for your your optimistic approach. The Plant List claims to differentiate between accepted names and synonyms, and if it is itself not clear whether particular name deserves the rank of species, subspecies or variety, what are the synonyms, declares a big chunk of names as unresolved, I fail to understand how it helps the taxonomic community. 

  Dr. Gurcharan Singh
  Retired  Associate Professor
  SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
  Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
  Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089 
  http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/ 
  http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ 

  On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 12:21 PM, Paul van Rijckevorsel <dipteryx at freeler.nl> wrote:

    Well, the Index Kewensis is not lost; it can still be
    consulted in IPNI (more or less, the online version
    differs somewhat from the printed version, hopefully
    for the better).

    Perhaps the compilers of The Plant List assume that
    the users can add autonyms for themselves. Or perhaps
    they just are restricting themselves to published names.
    All in all, The Plant List does not look not so bad to me
    (as long as one stays well clear of mosses!), although
    it clearly is not error free.

    Paul

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Gurcharan Singh" <singhg45 at gmail.com>
    To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
    Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 6:36 PM
    Subject: [Taxacom] The Index Kewensis we were once Proud of and The PlantList

    > As young scholars we were felt pride in holding fat two volumes of Index
    > Kewensis to help us sort accepted names and synonyms. There was a great
    > hope when online version was integrated into The Plant List. For once many
    > of us thought it would be great boon to the the taxonomic, but alas the
    > more I consult The Plant List, I get increasingly frustrated, compelling me
    > to wonder: Is there a real serious taxonomist involved with the project, or
    > a band of IT specialists who don't know basics of botanical nomenclature.
    > Here is the sample of commonest weed for you to Decide: The accepted names
    > within the species
    >
    > *Anagallis* *arvensis* L.
    > <http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2636008>
    > *Anagallis* *arvensis* var. *caerulea* (L.) Gouan
    > <http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2636010>
    > *Anagallis* *arvensis* subsp. *foemina* (Mill.) Schinz & Thell.
    > <http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2636015>
    > *Anagallis* *arvensis* var. *pallida* (Hook.f.) Hook.f.
    > <http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2636022>
    > *Anagallis* *arvensis* var. *parviflora* (Hoffmanns. & Link) Ces., Pass. &
    > Gibelli <http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2636024>
    >
    > Please note there is no subsp. arvensis (autonym) and var. arvensis
    > (another autonym) is regarded as simple synonym A. arvensis, accepted
    > varieties are directly under the species.
    >
    >
    > Dr. Gurcharan Singh
    > Retired  Associate Professor
    > SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
    > Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
    > Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
    > http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/
    > http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/
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    > Celebrating 27 years of Taxacom in 2014.
    >
    >
    > -----
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    Celebrating 27 years of Taxacom in 2014.

  Geen virus gevonden in dit bericht.
  Gecontroleerd door AVG - www.avg.com
  Versie: 2014.0.4765 / Virusdatabase: 4015/8201 - datum van uitgifte: 09/12/14