Taxacom: botanical names with racist history

[Frank T. Krell]

These may be teething troubles, but the nomenclatural confusion already started. It was reported that these replacement names are written with ff, but they were decided to be written with one f.
There we go.

Frank


Dr. Frank-Thorsten Krell

Senior Curator of Entomology, Editor-in-Chief
Commissioner and Councillor, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
Department of Zoology
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2001 Colorado Blvd
Denver, Colorado 80205-5798, U.S.A.
Frank.krell at dmns.org
Phone 303.370.8244
Fax 303.331.6492
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-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Paul van Rijckevorsel via Taxacom
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2024 12:40 AM
To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
Subject: Re: Taxacom: botanical names with racist history

Well, the original proposal (126) is here:
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fonlinelibrary.wiley.com%2Fdoi%2Fepdf%2F10.1002%2Ftax.12622&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Ce5684f3757414888bf3a08dcaa4f82a8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638572505670877259%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=NPzERtSaILqxayo3CwU%2BVROGf92OTdh3KkjcmqvJunU%3D&reserved=0

This is to change /caffra/ to /afra/, not /affra/. There is also the question when the change is to take effect. At the earliest, this will be when the IBC approves the decisions of the Nomenclature Section. Arguably, it will wait till the new edition of the ICNafp is published.

Paul

On 22/07/2024 04:57, John Grehan via Taxacom wrote:
> Statements below from a web site. Can any botanist on Taxacom comment
> further on this?
>
> Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that
> are deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label
> that contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling
> six-day session attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the
> International Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.
>
> The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names
> that contain the word *caffra*, which originates in insults made
> against Black people, will be replaced by the word *affra* to denote
> their African origins. More than 200 species will be affected,
> including the coast coral tree, which will be known as *Erythrina
> affra* instead of *Erythrina caffra* .
>
> The scientists attending the nomenclature session also agreed to
> create a special committee which would rule on names given to newly
> discovered plants, fungi and algae. These are usually named by those
> who first describe them in the scientific literature. However, the
> names could now be overruled by the committee if they are deemed to be
> derogatory to a group or race
>
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