This is a general question about common names, illustrated with one example. I recently encountered a number of observations that had been identified to the wrong variety, most likely because of the English name assigned to the variety. The taxon in this case is Penstemon rydbergii ( https://www.in…

I don’t really have an opinion on your main question (I suspect it’s more of an issue with plants than birds.) But I can tell you that beardtongue is commonly used for some Penstemons, at least in some regions. Swink & Wilhelm’s Plants of the Chicago Region, for instance, uses the following: P. cal…

I do think the common names can be misleading. I have seen a few species for which I think the final choice of name is made by thinking, “This is Common Whatever so it must be the one I see.” Or, “It’s in a meadow so this must be Meadow Whatever.” I’m not sure what, if anything, to do about it.

I could agree with that – for myself. However, many, many users of iNaturalist know (and want to know) only common names. We can’t get rid of them, much though we might like to.

It depends on the taxonomic group and where the taxa occur. For amphibians and reptiles in North America, there are standardized English names for subspecies that are distinct from the species names. Granted, not everyone consistently uses them but they are available and I believe iNat follows them…

The Curator’s Guide has some guidelines for subspecies (relevant section quoted below). I’m not sure of the best solution in this case, but option © (creating new common names that aren’t in usage elsewhere) is out From Curator Guidelines : "If a species has no common name in usage, please don’t ma…

[image] twr61: I have never actually heard anybody refer to a Penstemon as a Beardtongue. Is this a regional thing, or just my own limited circle of people who know what a penstemon is? I have never heard a live person say it, although I have read it. There’s nothing too hard about the pronou…

[image] twr61: I have never actually heard anybody refer to a Penstemon as a Beardtongue. Is this a regional thing, Commonly called this in Canada.

It sounds like my option A might fit this best. Apply a common name at the species level, and remove any common names from the varieties. Those people who are knowledgable enough to determine the ID at a finer level than species probably won’t be put off by the use of a scientific name.

[image] ryan_durand: Get rid of the common names and the issue goes away! Almost like the binomial naming system was designed to address this issue :) I might be mis-reading this, but I don’t think the binomial naming system was created to address the issue of vernacular name confusion! I thi…

Yet another question about common names

General

ryan_durand March 17, 2021, 4:46pm 4

Get rid of the common names and the issue goes away! Almost like the binomial naming system was designed to address this issue :)

Can’t see that there will ever be a way to make common names accurate.

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Yet another question about common names

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