Re:taxonomists, setosa, and tridentata

I'm confused.   What's the difference between botanists and taxonomists?  A
taxonomist is a botanist who describes and names new plants and who
attempts to stabilize the names of plants already described.  The Japanese
botanist who settled the I. ensata question was a taxonomist.  As far as I
can see, it is the commercial growers and gardeners, not taxonomists, who
stubbornly continue to use I. kaempferi.

Taxonomists will carefully evaluate the evidence for the validity of I.
hookeri as a separate species, and when it is well established, accept it.
The two cases are quite different--in the former, it was shown that I
ensata was an older name applied to the same species as had been wrongly
called I. kaempferi.  In this case, it is being proposed that I. hookeri
(though previously recognized had been lumped in with I. setosa) is, in
fact, a true species.  The ensata case was a "legal" dispute, if you will,
and the hookeri case more of a scientific one.  Hence the evidence for
hookeri's status must be carefully examined.

It would not be at all unusual for I. hookeri to occur on both sides of the
continent.   Scores of species of both plants and animals do, and there are
also cases in which the same species occurs in the Pacific NW and in Japan
or China--also a few oddballs which occur in the Appalachians and then
again in Japan.  Sometimes the Mexican highlands are added to the mix, too.

I've had I. tridentata here for about five years, but no blooms so far.  It
appears very late in the spring and is completely deciduous in the winter.
The plants were grown from SIGNA seed.

Best wishes, Bill
___________________
William A. Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943 USA
phone (804) 223-6172
FAX (804) 223-6374
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