Showy Flowers

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phil_SK
Posts: 1753
Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2006 10:47 am
Location: Stockport, UK

Re: Showy Flowers

Post by phil_SK »

savant wrote:Since collecting I've noticed that so called experts(even only collecting a specific genus) have difficulty ID'ing them so what chance a newcomer?
I suggest you look at this thread to see what I mean:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=33967" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
As a contributor to that thread, I'm uncomfortable with being termed an expert: I am not, and I doubt anybody else who commented is. As none of us has claimed to be experts, I can't imagine who your "so-called experts" are. We are interested amateurs - we might have more experience than you (I've been growing cacti for over 30 years, so I've seen a fair few plants, thumbed through many books and seen many thousands of discussions online) but that is all. We have no control over our plants' names and, yes, there are times when a lack of consensus is frustrating. Cacti are very variable and their features often quite 'plastic' differing depending on where and how they are grown. Many grow in very inaccessible regions that have only been explored for 100m from the only road for 1000 miles; we know very little about many of them and have only a hazy picture of how plants of the same species might vary over their range. A small percentage of species are easy to identify, being unlike anything else, but most are not. The plants are what they are and often don't want to conform to our tidy notions of genera and species; no amount of grumbling is going to make them fit easily, so there will always be debate, doubt and dissent often without resolution. It's tempting to go along with those who tell us not to bother with the names and just enjoy the plants but through trying to untangle the names we often come to understand and appreciate our plants more. Stick with it. :)
savant
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2014 12:03 pm
Location: Chester NW England 1 mile from Welsh Border

Re: Showy Flowers

Post by savant »

Hi Phil, I wasn't actually referring to you as a so called expert. I'd written it very badly. My main intention was to get at those faceless people that sit in offices around a big table and decide to change the name of a plant. As you said in your post on the other thread it is totally unnecessary sometimes to alter any. namess of plants.
Latin is a dead language thank goodness.
cantharis
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:57 am
Location: Costa Blanca, Spain

Re: Showy Flowers

Post by cantharis »

phil_SK wrote:It's tempting to go along with those who tell us not to bother with the names and just enjoy the plants but through trying to untangle the names we often come to understand and appreciate our plants more. Stick with it. :)
Interesting comment. I do enjoy my plants for their own beauty, but their names, especially how they relate to others in their genus, are very important to me, and help to enhance my enjoyment of them.
A long time ago, I rejoiced when I was kicked out of the Latin class - but now I am trying to make up my deficiencies in that beautiful (didn´t think so then) language.
Earth has enough for man´s need, but not for man´s greed - Gandhi
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