Taxacom: Proposed New Word Coined for Fruiting Time

[Michael Heads]

in theory, you're supposed to have a Greek word with a Greek suffix, e.g.
anth-esis. So it should be carp-esis (rather than frugesis or fructesis). A
more important point is: will the reader understand? Most floras and
revisions say: 'Flowers: Jan-Feb, fruit: Mar-Apr'. Anthesis (used mainly by
physiologists and horticulturists) is ambiguous - it can refer to the
moment the flower opens, or the whole duration of time the flower is open.

On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 8:49 AM John Kartesz via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> Proposed New Word Coined for Fruiting Time
>
> Being in the final stages of revising the Biota of North American Program
> website for publication, it came to my attention that no existing botanical
> term exists for fruiting-time in parallel fashion as anthesis does for
> flowering-time.  Since the concept of fruiting-time is used by taxonomists,
> horticulturalists, those in the nursery trade, etc. as frequently as
> flowering-time to describe when a mature ovary ripens or a reproductive
> structure develops, it is wholly justified that such a term exists.
>
> After scouring the botanical literature thoroughly and finding no
> analogous term in the botanical lexicon, I am proposing here the term
> frugesis (frū●gā’sis), for fruiting time; Latin fructus for fruit + Greek
> -ησις (-ēsis), suffix, indicating an event.  The word "fructus" is Latin
> for fruit. It is the root word for many words, e.g., fructose, a type of
> sugar derived from fruit; and frugivorous and frugivore, referring to
> fruit-eating, which most ornithologists and mammalogists will be familiar.
> BONAP will be using this term in our forthcoming revision.
> -JTK
> Dr. John Kartesz, Director
> BONAP
>
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-- 
Dunedin, New Zealand.

My books:

*Biogeography and evolution in New Zealand. *Taylor and Francis/CRC, Boca
Raton FL. 2017.
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*Biogeography of Australasia:  A molecular analysis*. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge. 2014. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cambridge.org%2F9781107041028&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0451915cce754490965308dd4b312351%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638749396616326910%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=CqB7yzYM5zyl31Wtg4bdEHFc8oaZtUeC2H8ntjfs5bs%3D&reserved=0


*Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University of California Press,
Berkeley. 2012. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ucpress.edu%2Fbook.php%3Fisbn%3D9780520271968&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0451915cce754490965308dd4b312351%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638749396616340561%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dRjWey%2Bu%2F%2BcY87QGWUupd0VaAtiEkQwF3WDWShu%2BMZc%3D&reserved=0


*Panbiogeography: Tracking the history of life*. Oxford University Press,
New York. 1999. (With R. Craw and J. Grehan).
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