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Questions and Answers: 2019

Question: I recently have communicated with a naturalist in Southern Mexico about a species there named Cornus excels. I suggested Swida …

• Question

  I recently have communicated with a naturalist in Southern Mexico about a species there named Cornus excels. I suggested Swida because of the flowers. In the ensuing discussion it appeared that the Botanical world is all over the map regarding the Cornaceae. That person said he used "Plants of the World Online as an authoritative nomenclature source. Do you agree? If not, can you reccomemnd a source which is better? One source gave Swida as a subspecies of Cornus, btw. :)

  Answer

  Dear chaffemonell, There is no one large source of taxonomy that is without problems. Large lists of plants have tremendous inertia, and keeping them up-to-date is almost impossible. Likewise, when many people are involved, folks who are entrenched in their ideas influence the names being used (rather than being more objective about the available biosystematic data). Regarding Cornus in the broad sense, it is very unpopular to divide this genus; however, its unpopularity has nothing to do with the biosystematic data driving the decision making. When Lycopodium was subdivided, it too was unpopular and people resisted for years. Now, it is widely accepted (once those with entrenched ideas either retired or gave up fighting against an amazing data set that provided only one answer--the genus is too heterogenous without subdivision). Cornus will take time, but the data are there to support the distinctions. And keep in mind, most that fight this change have never researched why the change is even being proposed. I hope this helps to some degree.