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Re: Correct plant names

But there are international rules governing how wild plants and cultivated plants are named; these have been agreed to and supported by the US authorities as well as the British authorities and others around the world. The most recent international conference to discuss these matters was in Toronto last year.

It's perfectly true that "plants were given... different Linean binomials by different professional taxonomists"; that's exactly why there are agreed rules for standardising these things. It is of course true that in different countries and different parts of any one country the same plant may be known by different common names (see my earlier posting on bluebells); that's exactly why there's an international standardised system of scientific names.

The RHS is doing the work, publishing the book, and making the infomation available online free of charge but they're not following a set of British rules for British gardeners; they're following the international rules. Personally, I would like to see the RHS committee that overseas the taxonomic and nomenclatural content of the PlantFinder include relevant experts from other countries around the world, including perhaps the University of Minnesota; although logistically this may not easy. But, especially now we have websites and email, there's already a wide exchange of scientific information and opinion around the world. And many American authorities have responsibility for specific groups: the American Boxwood Society being one of the most recent to be approved.

I agree that many British gardening books are of little use in the US and fortunately fewer are now being imported. I'd be interested, Duane, which American sources do you use to check plant names?

Graham Rice

http://GrahamRice.com


On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 06:07:10 -0400 "Suzanne Pierot" <suzanne@hvi.net>
writes:

 Is there a "Plant Finder: book for U.S. sources similar to the one
 published
 by the RHS?

If the RHS book actually were the last word on plant names, why would you
need an American version? But in actuality, they are not the last word.
They just think they are, and they have managed to convince some people
that they are.

Europeans like to have some kind of central authority to decide what is
right and what is wrong, and if the RHS book is "right" for them, that's
fine. But that concept has always been anethema for Americans. A plant
was not given a certain "right" name at creation. All plants were given
different names by different people, differrent names under different
circumstances, even different Linean binomials by different professional
taxonomists.

The important thing for a garden writer is not the search for what is the
"right" name but an understanding of what is an appropriate name for the
piece we are writing and the audience it is intended for. And for an
American writer, the RHS book is of little value. I have a godawful
number of British garden books, and whenever I use one for research on an
article, I always cross-reference names with an appropriate American
source before submitting.

D

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