Neo' name change ???
 

Just to thrill all growers, I learnt today that the Kew List of Monocots have listed a name change to Neofinetia.
Its now listed with them as a VANDA.
I checked the RHS registrations & they have its listed as Vanda also but as a synonym. Neofinetia exists as the current name.
I have emailed Kew List & RHS Registrar for clarification.
I'll let the forum know what answers I get.

Wonder why? I love calling them neos.

They are Neofinetia and always will be. There are times where taxonomic shuffling needs to happen (like with the lesser known Oncidiinae and the Pluerothallis), but this is a case where it shouldn't have been touched.

i agree. i love calling them neos too! and why would they do that everyone knows them as neos, anyway i will always call them neos no-matter what!! :)

I received an email reply from Rafael Govaerts, compiler of the Monocot list. He sttes he hasn't altered all names, he forwarded this PDF file.
Its worth reading.

http://www.windsororchidsociety.ca/u...rchidaceae.pdf

The paper does indeed recommend changing Neofinetia to Vanda. This is going to be the Sophronitis/ Cattleya and Laelia/ Cattleya arguments all over again.

The taxonomists, and a few anal purists trying to make a point, will start calling them Vandas and the rest of the world, myself and many of my friends in the horticulture trade, will continue to call them Neos. To the Neo. societies in Japan and here in the US, they will continue to be called "Fukiran". :)

All this renaming accomplishes is making judging and labeling plants and maintaining plant databases in botanic gardens that much more difficult. After helping set up an exhibit for the Delaware Orchid Society at the Susquehanna Orchid Society show yesterday, I took the time to look at the other exhibits and saw two exhibits with Soph. cernua and a Soph. coccinea which were labeled as such. Now will the exhibits be docked because they should be labeled as Catt. cernua and Catt. coccinea? No-one seemed to know.

Considering how easy it is to do "inter-generic" crosses, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that when they finish all the DNA analysis, there will really only be two species of orchids. All the epiphytic orchids will be put in one new name and all the and terrestrials will be put in another. ;)

Cheers.
Jim

RHS or KEWS better get their act together. They must device an efficient way of classifying orchids and correctly naming them....and once it is named they have to stick to that name....

After 200+ years of Orchids, there are going to be some plants definitely classified wrongly. I have no problem in them being corrected BUT I think this is going too far. The orchid World needs to stand up & let these researchers/taxonimists whoever, enough is enough.
All this 'correcting' is making every publication void & the history of an orchid, species or hybrid, impossible to trace for the average/professional orchid grower.

That is because they dont have a strong opposition or anyone who can reprimand them on all their mistakes. RHS must be held accountable on any mistakes they make.
And we should never just take this quietly being shoved down our throats.

To be honest, i really doubt that KEW is at all interested in the hobbyist community's perspective on name changes. Conveying the most accurate and up to date phylogeny of a group of organisms is the job of the scientists, not pandering to hobbyists to don't want to change their labels.