can anyone tell me the latin name for ...

[danbrown87]

So you are basically saying Botanical names are infallable and accurate to the degree they cannot be mistaken and that there is no other more simplistic and understandable referencing system that will work.

 

I hope I'm wrong, but thats the sort of attitude there was to the computer filing system. It's accuracy and speed became apparent when comparing the system to the Ripper investigation filing system.

 

I'm not saying anything like that, but it's the best we have at the moment. If we want to be able to identify and describe trees accuratley, we need to do so universally, which is what we do in the current system.

[Dean Lofthouse]

I'm not saying anything like that, but it's the best we have at the moment. If we want to be able to identify and describe trees accuratley, we need to do so universally, which is what we do in the current system.

 

Thats my exact point, the system to be fully universal and understandable to ALL.

 

So do you all know every Family, Genus, Species, sub species, variety, forma and cultivar off the top of your head ???

 

Of course you dont, you have to reference books, so why not have a reference system made of simple letteres and numbers similar to your H5N1 virus and just have a family or genus ie Prunus H5N1 or even just PH5N1 instead of peeing about wasting ink typing long winded illegable names out.

[bob]

surely a name is better than a code

would you like to be called

dean 007

 

 

 

 

 

 

probably

[Amelanchier]

So you are basically saying Botanical names are infallable and accurate to the degree they cannot be mistaken and that there is no other more simplistic and understandable referencing system that will work.

 

I hope I'm wrong, but thats the sort of attitude there was to the computer filing system. It's accuracy and speed became apparent when comparing the system to the Ripper investigation filing system.

 

Ah, no. There may well be a more efficient system, but this one works well enough for most.

 

I have to say that I like it. Its got character, hell its even got humour - Ladies and gentlemen, the dinosaur of rock...

Masiakasaurus knopfleri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masiakasaurus

 

The error comes, not from the names, but from where you separate the species, genus, order etc.

 

Some Taxonomists are 'groupers' and some are 'splitters'. For example, Betula pendula and Betula pubescens are Silver and Downy Birch right? Well some taxonomists are of the opinion that they're the same thing. And that B. pendula 'switches' to B. pubescens by doubling its chromosomes in certain environments.

 

Ever seen Quercus x rosacea? Probably. Its a hybrid between Q. petrea and Q. robur and as such shares intermediate characteristics of each! So just about the biggest ID nightmare you'll ever find (apart from Salix spp.) Anyway, point is though the hybrid exists its nigh on impossible to ever say for certain without genetic testing that you have one. So the term literally never gets used in the real world.

 

Because of these issues and others, any 'new' system could never be infallible either. It would still rely on taxonomists to 'split' or 'group' and it would still come up with names we would never use.

[danbrown87]

But the current system has meaning. Salix alba is White Willow, alba meaning white. If we were to introduce numbers and letters instead we'd end up with extremley long combinations of numbers and letters, in order to classify all of the species. These in turn would be shortened, and then have to be refrenced.

 

If we were to classify trees in a series of numbers and letters what would be next? Semi-detatched houses become SDHs? Border Terriers become BTs? We have a system that works well. We use common names when the situation is right to use them and if things need to be more precise, we use the globaly accepted format.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Ah, no. There may well be a more efficient system, but this one works well enough for most.

 

 

Tony, your beginning to sound like the Storeman at the Huddersfield Landrover Centre.

 

Ask for a part there and he starts thumbing through the card system on the end of the counter, crosses out 5 in stock and put puts a 4 where the 5 was .

 

Works well for him too, but he's about 90

[Amelanchier]

Of course you dont, you have to reference books, so why not have a reference system made of simple letteres and numbers similar to your H5N1 virus and just have a family or genus ie Prunus H5N1 or even just PH5N1 instead of peeing about wasting ink typing long winded illegable names out.

 

Because of the quirks of digital information. The less information you have, the more the error matters

 

For example - Say Prunus avium is recoded to PH5N1 (incidentally try telling your client that's what its called!)

 

And I want to write a spec to fell the PH5N1 at 6 Cobblers Lane.

 

Well if I get a case of fat fingers, and type PH6N1... you ain't felling the right tree. Whereas if I type Pruns avum you'll be fine.

[Amelanchier]

Tony, your beginning to sound like the Storeman at the Huddersfield Landrover Centre.

 

Ask for a part there and he starts thumbing through the card system on the end of the counter, crosses out 5 in stock and put puts a 4 where the 5 was .

 

Works well for him too, but he's about 90

 

Ha you're the one who wants landrover part numbers instead of tree names.

 

[Dean Lofthouse]

But the current system has meaning. Salix alba is White Willow, alba meaning white. If we were to introduce numbers and letters instead we'd end up with extremley long combinations of numbers and letters, in order to classify all of the species. These in turn would be shortened, and then have to be refrenced.

 

 

Can be thought about the other way round too, what if our phone numbers were words not letters.

 

mine would be: zerosevenninesevenzerofivesixfiveninefivenine

 

Starting to look a bit latin now isn't it?

 

They would have to be referenced but we do that anyway

[Dean Lofthouse]

Well if I get a case of fat fingers, and type PH6N1... you ain't felling the right tree. Whereas if I type Pruns avum you'll be fine.

 

That would only happen if you had two similar species side by side