I’m new to curation now, so I’ll have a few questions to ask, this is my first.
Generally speaking, plants are notable hybridisers, and they are vital to note and record so they can be identified and researched, and also learnt from.
For practical reasons, under the current framework natural simple hybrids are going to be the thing of interest rather than natural triple hybrids (unless common) or indications of degrees of backcrosses or garden hybrids.
In Britain wild hybrids are included in the more experienced Flora and may at times be reasonably common, but don’t necessarily have a Genus x name format (I can see examples of those entered), but are listed as for example “Heracleum sphondylium × Heracleum mantegazzianum” (in Stace’s New Flora, ed 4)
Given they are officially listed in a very professional work I’m presuming where stable they would be fine to enter on an as-needs basis (or for very common ones, proactively).
In that understanding the question is, should that example go in as -
Heracleum sphondylium × Heracleum mantegazzianum
or
Heracleum sphondylium × mantegazzianum
or
Heracleum sphondylium × H. mantegazzianum
or
any of the above with s.l. tacked on the mantegazzianum
I’m presuming if in the future a Genus x name comes about it can then be renamed.
Many thanks, David
None of the above. The convention for plants is use <species 1> × <species 2> where species 1 and species 2 are alphabetical. The correct name in this case would be Heracleum mantegazzianum × sphondylium
Yes, these are appropriate to add if they are referenced in scholarly works. I would add them on an as-needed basis when flags request them or you find an observation of one. There’s not much point in having un-used names in the database and your time could be better spent solving existing flags rather than creating name entries which may never be used.
Many thanks, so I’ll ignore what the books say and put them alphabetically in iNaturalist.
Generally I agree with doing them as-needed unless obviously common; the latter being when coming to mind (such as when entering another hybrid or researching it) rather than systematically sought out.
David
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