I notice more and more plant subspecies on iNat that have common names. Do people in real life (offline) really refer to subspecies by common names other than the common name for the species? It seems like the people likely to recognize that a plant is a subspecies would probably refer to it by its …

[image] rupertclayton: However, I’ve seen peer-reviewed papers describing new taxa that provide a suggested common name. I guess I don’t really understand what a common name is. I thought it was the name local non-scientific people already used for a plant. It didn’t occur to me that a name f…

Yes and no, it’s dependent. Often times the subspecies with names were former species reduced to subspecies levels. Common names on subtaxa are not particularly maintained or formally addressed, and in a worse state than species common names. I treat iNat as a resource to work on providing and mana…

Some do, some don’t. I wish iNaturalist wouldn’t strain so hard to give “common” names to all the subspecies in cases where virtually nobody does that. However, sometimes such names are useful.

Usually your idea about common names would be correct, but increasingly, as we differentiate species out, there are specific subspecies (and even species) that don’t have common names. Even among scientists common names can be useful as they’re often faster, easier to say and remember, and, as long…

I have no idea when it comes to plants, but a good example that comes to my mind is a turtle, Trachemys scripta. Yellow-bellied slider = Trachemys scripta scripta, Red-eared slider = Trachemys scripta elegans. Since they are common in pet trade and have visible differences in appearance, most of peo…

I see common names for subspecies being useful on iNat since the user base is a mix of scientific experts and beginner naturalists who don’t necessarily have an understanding of evolutionary classification. I like to refine IDs to subspecies where I can because it can give us useful information abou…

A common name - should be one that is accepted locally and already in common usage. I wonder what proportion of ‘common’ names on iNat have been invented to fill gaps?

Only add common names from standard issued list from authoritiets otherwise the confusion will be huge and no benefit if every website has its own common name.

I prefer not to add extra common names myself.

[image] wdvanhem: this sometimes causes confusion for non-experts when I identify their “Parlin’s pussytoes” as Antennaria parlinii ssp. fallax. It’s much easier for some users to understand that I’m refining their “Parlin’s pussytoes” to “downy Parlin’s pussytoes”. I agree that the long scie…

Are There Really Common Names for Subspecies?

General

Topic		Replies	Views
Subspecies Having The Same Common Name as the Species General	37	748	September 21, 2025
Duplicating common name for nominate subspecies Curators	15	2239	April 16, 2020
Common name v Latin name for subspecies General	28	659	December 20, 2024
What to do about silly common names? General common-names	53	2396	August 5, 2024
Inconsistent subspecies name syntax in iNat General	15	650	June 16, 2024

Are There Really Common Names for Subspecies?

Related topics