Reaction Dynamics
- Subject: Reaction Dynamics
- From: J* H*
- Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 16:47:16 -0400
Bob,
I am amazed at the variable answers that one gets to a simple question.
You raised a simple question yesterday regarding the darned confusion
for use of species names on some plants which are not species but
hybrids, such as H. montana 'Mountain Snow' . You received three
responses so far..one from Bill Meyer indicating it is a species
selection from wild montana populations in Japan, a second from Mike
Lemke indicating a reason is not necessary, and a third from Holland
which suggested keeping the species name. No reason was given for the
suggestions from Holland. I assumed they were based on the assumptions
that the information provided by Bill Meyer was correct because other
similar examples were provided (H.montana 'Choko Nishiki' and H.kikutii
'Red Neck Heaven') to show where use of species names is suggested to
provide more useful information.
Before commenting myself, I have waited several hours to see if any
other listserv subscribers wanted to comment with more correct answers.
With none forthcoming, my comments follow.
One of my best friends, Bill Meyer, is always helpful with miscellaneous
hosta information to Hosta -open. He is very knowledgable of hostas but
sometimes we all make insignificant mistakes. He offered his opinion
that since H. montana 'Mountain Snow' was collected in the wild, this is
the criteria ( the reason) to employ the species name in front of the
horticulture name.
The subscriber from Holland converted this opinion into a "fact" by
accepting Bill's erroneous opinion and reiterated this opinion in a
fashion without mentioning Bill as the source. He erroneously asssumed
that 'Mountain Snow' originated as a sport or hybrid selection in the
wild from a montana species population.
The fact is that H. 'Mountain Snow' is a white margined sport of H.
'Aureomarginata' found in tissue culture lab by Mark Zilis and
registered by IRA in 1988. It is not a plant collect in the wild. For
more details see Schmid, page 195
The fact that a minor error occurred in making incorrect assumptions
about 'Mountain Snow' is not serious.. The fact that this error was
"borrowed" by someone without being aware of the error and not
mentioning the source of the error IS serious. He copied information
that was erroneous, used it as his own facts, without indicating the
source of this information. He exposed himself, "flagrante delicto" in
a pattern of using the information of others without attribution and
without adequately checking whether it was factual or not.
Now that I have interpreted, expressed and commented upon what actually
happened, the reaction dynamics to my post probably will be magnified
ten fold and we will be off to the races in a long discussion on
Reaction Dynamics. BTW, Bill is unaware that I have posted this message.
Jim Hawes
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