The Plant List

[Great Moravian]

Oh, so that is a  joke?

No, it isn't. It is reality. In an allegory.

[rob krejzl]

Tony,

certainly a case of 'famous last words'!  With the increasing understanding of epigenetics, we will see another paradigm shift in relationships.

Horizontal gene transfer is more upsetting.

[Rafa]

Re Crocus serotinus subsp. clusii. The list tells us that it is Brian Matthew who is responsible for the transfer from Crocus clusii J. Gay.  Anyone who has valid reason to doubt the transfer can ask him about his reasons and try to persuade him that he was wrong - or that Crocus clusii J. Gay exists as a separate species. It may well be that Brian has found that all herbarium specimen available to him labeled as Crocus clusii J. Gay in fact were misnamed forms of serotinus - not knowing that Crocus clusii J. Gay is still around.
A first approach could be to search the Kew Bulletine 32: 46 (1977). where the reasons might be given.

Maybe this is the problem, most of herbarium sheet are wrong. This crocus is the only Iberian species with reticulate tunics and I think it is C. clusii... if not it will be a new species without name.

[Lesley Cox]

Joke or not, I love it.

[Great Moravian]

Maybe this is the problem, most of herbarium sheet are wrong. This crocus is the only Iberian species with reticulate tunics and I think it is C. clusii... if not it will be a new species without name.

Original description
http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4441782
and a characterization of it
http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15330367
and coloured images
http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15330365

[Rafa]

Thank you very much Great Moravian, no deubt it is C. clusii Gay. It is exactly the place I pictured this Crocus, Chiclana de la Frontera. Alfredo Barra, our expert Crocus botanist, also consider C. clusii is a valid species and don't support N. serotinus subspecies.

Appart all valid and distinctive characters, it is very important the "ecología and fenología" (ecology and phenology?) It blooms one month later than C. serotinus and C. nudiflorus in a southern part of Iberian Peninsula! in Pinus maritimus woods near the sea.... I can't imagine a C. serotinus in that places as it grows in Quercus forest and high altitude mountains.

[Gerry Webster]

I profoundly disagree with Great Moravian's remarks on science in general & molecular phylogenetics in particular. However, I am very grateful to him for drawing my attention to the online Biodiversity Library - an invaluable resource.

[Great Moravian]

Gerry,
After 38 years in research and science I dare say a scientist should
formulate new results via ideas and insight.

[Gerry Webster]

Gerry,
After 38 years in research and science I dare say a scientist should
formulate new results via ideas and insight.

38 years for me too!

[Rafa]

 more time researching than I have been alive... 

[gote]

Later on in the evening listening to the radio I heard a statement made by a scientist a century ago saying 'Science has no further to go everything is now known'

I did not know you listened to the radio over a hundred years ago   
Göte

[gote]

As to the Plant List, I find its publication a bit premature, as it is still full of known errors, due to the slow movement of taxonomy.  Take it with a grain of salt.
Jamie

Do'nt shoot the pianist! he did not write the music. 
The name of the plant list is of course misleading. It does not list plants. It lists dfinitions as found in floras and elsewhere. If the definition is inappropriate it is not the list that is wrong.
Göte
I am also grateful to the Great Moravian for pointing to the crocus reference. Thank you!

[Great Moravian]

I profoundly disagree with Great Moravian's remarks on science in general & molecular phylogenetics in particular.

There are taxonomists whose opinion about molecular interpreters is highly critical too.
Using the necessary courteous phraseology of course.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/download?pub=infobike%3a%2f%2fiapt%2ftax%2f2010%2f00000059%2f00000006%2fart00001&mimetype=application%2fpdf

[Lesley Cox]

Later on in the evening listening to the radio I heard a statement made by a scientist a century ago saying 'Science has no further to go everything is now known'

I did not know you listened to the radio over a hundred years ago   
Göte

A certain man with brown skin (about whom, as I'm white, I musn't make a joke) told me that when two of our native wood pigeons are seen sitting together on the power lines, it means there will be rain within hours. "We've always known this" he said, "for at least 200 years." Funnily enough, when I see pigeons sitting on the power lines, it frequently DOES rain, very soon afterwards.

[Gerry Webster]

I profoundly disagree with Great Moravian's remarks on science in general & molecular phylogenetics in particular.

There are taxonomists whose opinion about molecular interpreters is highly critical too.
Using the necessary courteous phraseology of course.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/download?pub=infobike%3a%2f%2fiapt%2ftax%2f2010%2f00000059%2f00000006%2fart00001&mimetype=application%2fpdf

Josef -  I cannot remember what I disagreed about with respect to molecular phylogenetics & the link does not work so I cannot respond further.