Dendrochilum Doesn't Exist

[Louis_W]

In my mind it stands to reason that if we are beginning to use new methods there will be quite a bit of reshuffling and even some mistakes. Growing pains. But I do think we should keep growing.

I fully agree that hobbiests and horticulturalists can continue to call plants old names or have their own nomenclature outside of strict taxonomy. People don't need to get whiplash. I think it's fair to wait some years or even decades to see if things change. I just don't jive with the "they don't know anything" sentiment.

[estación seca]

I said "they don't know much yet."

[Roberta]

The science will certainly continue to evolve as new knowledge develops. It's the hobbyists and horticultural interests that have a problem, the science has to go wherever it needs to. Untangling it all will be a bigger issue where there was lumping - one can always roll up the "splits" to higher-level groupings but sorting out the "lumps" is more like somehow reducing entropy. Un-stirring the caffe latte to get back to the milk and coffee. The decisions involved in determining where the DNA evidence says that one species stops and the next begins are human ones, not absolute characteristics of the natural organisms. The organisms are going to continue to confound the whole process by evolving and by making "natural hybrids" and hybrid swarms. Science is messy, horticulture wants neat labels. Science and nature are bound to each other.

[Fairorchids]

For the taxonomists & Kew, there is only current 'truth'. Whether that means renaming a species for the fourth or fifth time doesn't matter.

In other plant families, this generally does not matter, since there is very limited intergeneric breeding, so most hybrids involve only a small number of very closely related species. For example, most Clivia hybrids are still pure Clivia miniata (though with different color forms).

In orchids any changes have much greater impact, since we are dealing with 250,000+ hybrids, many of which are intergeneric. Much as I love the lack of genetic barriers on hybridizing in most of the orchid family, it comes back to bite us each time the taxonomists make a change.

There is no solution to this, other than continuously consulting the various databases available to us.