Amit ji, Padmani ji and other nonbotany colleagues All of us are bound by one thing: Love for photography, love for nature and curiosity to know what plant I have clicked. In that no one is botanist or nonbotanist. All of us also want our plant to be identified correctly, and it is here that botanical names come in handy, and they are more meaningful when author name is attached.
No garden lover would have miised the common garden flower cornflower. We all also know that it is botanically Centaurea cyanus, but incidently it is also known as bachelor's button, blue bottle, ragged robin. If you search for blue bottle on the internet, you will reach Centaurea cyanus, Muscari neglectum, species of Gentiana or even an insect Calliphora vomitoria. Safeda for us in Delhi and elsewhere is Eucalyptus spp. but if ask any one from Kashmir for a twig of Safeda, he/she will give you Populus spp. All these problems are not there when using botanical name. Each species will have only one accepted scientific name, known all over the world. You can extract all common names for this plant, not vice versa as indicated above. And now the names with authors. I will just give you just yesterday's example.Swagat ji (17625) uploaded a photograph which I identified as Atropa acuminata Royle., appropriately known as Indian belladona, a very important medicinal plant common in Himalayas. If you look for its description in Older Indian books you will find it identified as A. belladona Linn., the European bellodona L. which looks totally different (see it on Flowers of India-often cultivated in gardens). So won't you like to know whether your plant is belladona (deadly-nightshade) or Indian belladona. Botanically it can be written (as per present practice in Indiantreepix and Flowers of India): Atropa acuminata Syn: A. belladona What is your opinion is it correct? or else this one is better: Atropa acuminata Royle Sy: A. belladona Clarke (non L.) Make your choice, shortcut and confusion or clarity. Not to forget,many experts here in the group burn midnight oil to see that your plants are correctly identified. A plant sent by me at 1.30 in night was identified by Pankaj ji at 2.15 at night. We can all see the efforts and contributions of Kenneth to see that our plants are correctly identified. All have love for plants and passion for photography. Dr. Gurcharan Singh Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College University of Delhi, Delhi India http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45 ----- Original Message ----- From: Amit Ray To: J.M. Garg Cc: Gurcharan Singh ; Pankaj Kumar ; [email protected] ; [email protected] Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 6:46 AM Subject: Re: [indiantreepix:17715] Re: Botanical names in Indian Treetreepix and Flowers of India databases I concur with this opinion. Indiantreepix is tending to get a bit too scientific for me. Please do not get me wrong. I am a lay person with love for photography and nature and that is what has drawn me to this group when Garg-ji started it. I do appreciate the help provided by the experts. This is just my opinion - many probably will not agree. Thanks and regards to all of you. On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 11:43 PM, J.M. Garg <[email protected]> wrote: Some feedback: "Would it be expecting too much for the site to stay simple and interesting for non-botanists? Or could the more specialised and higher level discussions be put on a different link so as not to intimidate the lay plant-lover? (Just a suggestion, which I hope is taken impartially.) Padmini Raghavan." 2009/9/5 Gurcharan Singh <[email protected]> Thanks Pankaj ji for information. We are students all our life, and there is nothing better than learning few things. Nothing to feel apologitic Dr. Gurcharan Singh Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College University of Delhi, Delhi India http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pankaj Kumar" <[email protected]> To: "J.M. Garg" <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, September 05, 2009 6:35 PM Subject: [indiantreepix:17683] Re: Botanical names in Indian Treetreepix and Flowers of India databases With due respects to Dr. Gurcharan Singh, For author citations, according to ICBN, it is recommended that abbreviations needs to be followed for authors using following reference (RECOMMENDATION 46A, ICBN): Brummitt, R. K. and C. E. Powell. 1992. Authors of plant names: a list of authors of scientific names of plants, with recommended standard forms of their names, including abbreviations. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. There are various editions of this book, which keep updating information with the new author names and their abbreviations. So, Carolus Linnaeus is cited as 'L.' and not as 'Linn.' and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck is cited as 'Lam.' and not as 'Lamk.'. Some of these abbreviations are present at the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botanists_by_author_abbreviation The latest code of ICBN: Vienna Code is available at the following link for free: http://ibot.sav.sk/icbn/main.htm I am sending this information just incase members want it to be standardized properly, for use by both taxonomists as well as non-botanists. Regards Pankaj -- With regards, J.M.Garg ([email protected]) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna' Image Resource of thousands of my images of Birds, Butterflies, Flora etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg For learning about Indian Flora, visit/ join Google e-group- Indiantreepix:http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -- Amit Ray 25B Central Road Kolkata 700032 India URL: http://wildlifeindia.freehostia.com Phone: +91 033 24136034 Mobile: +919433715107 Email: 1) [email protected] 2) [email protected] 3) [email protected] 4) [email protected] 5) [email protected] 6) [email protected] 7) [email protected] 8) [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
