Taxacom: Tropicos and gender of names

[Douglas Yanega]

On 2/7/22 2:16 PM, Rafaël Govaerts wrote:
> Dear Doug,
> In Botany, the rule is that the original spelling should be maintained
> unless it is against one of the articles.
> So e.g. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fipni.org%2Fn%2F77142913-1&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C3e2be356bc844bfb57a508d9ea9adcfc%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798773987145891%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=LlH%2FtpFZkepFnrqIECwo7n%2FYpn4lzCguPCEBOPp%2FSH8%3D&reserved=0
> Zingiber tenuiscapus is not to be corrected to tenuiscapa as it is 
> correct as a noun.
>
> If a choice is possible, e.g. "nanus" in a masculine genus is 
> transferred to a feminine genus and if the author uses "nanus" then 
> that is not correctable as he treats it as a noun. Subsequent authors 
> must then follow that.
> Unless of course in the original publication it clearly indicated as 
> an adjective.

Apparently the Tropicos database does not follow this rule.

Zingiber is treated there as neuter, and it does not list this species. 
It does, however, list both "didymoglossa" and "didymoglossum" under 
Zingiber, both citing the same author and date. There is also a 
"longiglande" which is grammatically impossible, and likewise would 
appear to be an automated algorithm changing all "-is" endings to "-e" 
even if they are genitive noun forms like "glandis".

Again, I was making two points: (1) not all resources are trustworthy, 
nor do they yield consistent results (2) given this, we would do well to 
place the burden of gender agreement on authoritative nomenclatural 
registries, rather than individual taxonomists.

>
> There are many published books indicating the gender of genera, 
> perhaps the best known is
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bgbm.org%2FIAPT%2Fncu%2Fgenera%2FImprintRegVegNCU3.htm&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C3e2be356bc844bfb57a508d9ea9adcfc%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798773987145891%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=t0h7JKd3%2FBH%2FTjeRx5JEsf9GYye9hfC3LGED%2F42YOlE%3D&reserved=0

This seems like precisely the sort of resource I am advocating for all 
organismal names. If all botanists agree to adhere to whatever it says 
in this source, *and* the names there are immune from being disputed and 
changed, then it is EXACTLY what I am advocating: an authoritative 
nomenclatural registry.

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
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