The New Cactus Lexicon

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daiv
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The New Cactus Lexicon

Post by daiv »

I spent some time in the NCL today. More or less compared the whole list of synonyms in it to Anderson's. I am amazed at how many species are just left out altogether - presumably because the names were invalid? Anyway, I noticed also that in many genera there are one or two names that become the name for many others.

For example, there are well over a dozen Opuntia species that are relegated to O. elata and nearly as many to O. ficus indica, O. phaeacantha also recieved many names.

Anyway, I didn't count, but I'd estimate that from Anderson to the NCL the size of Opuntia was reduced easily by 30%, if not more.

There were similar reductions in many other genera, but some like Parodia remained nearly untouched.

So, not sure what my point is. Just sharing an observation, I guess.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
peterb
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Post by peterb »

Going from the names I regularly use to Anderson can be a huge shock. How strange to then have even more names simply disappear or be subsumed into even larger species concepts. I did finally get a chance to see the photo atlas volume of the NCL- amazing pictures!

Every epoch has its crazy cactus books. The DBG library is awesome for that. Borg, Backeberg, etc. Sometimes it seems to me that entire field has been utterly botched a few times over by well meaning botanists. (botchanists?)

peterb
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daiv
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Post by daiv »

I figured that would strick a chord with you especially Peter! :wink:

I guess one of the things that I found most unusual is that when I say that the names are simply not included, I mean they don't even list them as being dropped.

I like Anderson's book because it is very unusual to not find a name in the synonym index. That is a really handy reference even for the most avid "splitter". If the name was dropped or lumped, at least you know what happened to the name.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
peterb
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Post by peterb »

I've encountered the completely missing name phenomenon many times. One name that's completely missing from Anderson, for example, is Echinomastus johnsonii var. lutescens. (another one is var. octacanthus). It pays to dig even deeper into plants where I have specialized interest. The many new names for a wide variety of Opuntia published by Griffiths are also usually entirely missing now from every publication. Britton and Rose sometimes list them.

peterb
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