[MPWG] FW: more on Latin nomenclature

[Wendy Applequist]

So do I (not to be disloyal to my own institution's database!).  Just to
clarify, though, both of these databases are primarily useful for
checking the spelling of an epithet, who the authority was, etc.  They
don't usually tell you which is the right name to use.  Tropicos tries
to do a good job of indicating synonymy, but it can never be perfectly
complete or timely, and of course it has to accept someone's taxonomic
opinion, so for example, it might list two different species when
another authority would lump them into one.  IPNI and its included
databases are markedly worse for that purpose.  I have encountered a
number of instances where a name was indicated to be synonymous with
some other name but it in fact is not; this may have been someone's
opinion 100 years ago.  You also find that the included databases
sometimes disagree on the authority's abbreviation or even identity;
then you may have to go to more detailed literature.
 
Wendy Applequist

________________________________

From: mpwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:mpwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of Amanda
Koch
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 1:26 PM
To: mpwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: Re: [MPWG] more on Latin nomenclature



In addition to Mobot's Tropicos website, I have also always
double-checked using www.ipni.org <http://www.ipni.org/>  (international
plant name index) to compare results. Sometimes there are discrepancies,
so it's nice to check both...

 

Amanda Koch

 

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