Plant names in English

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John G
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Plant names in English

Post by John G »

Great news. Plant names can now be in English:

“For at least 400 years, botanists across the globe have relied on Latin as their lingua franca, but the ardor has cooled. Scientists say plants will keep their double-barreled Latin names, but they have decided to drop the requirement that new species be described in the classical language. Instead, they have agreed to allow botanists to use English.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... ml?hpid=z5
John Godbey
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krisw
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by krisw »

Are you sure? I read the article as saying that the plant names still have to be Latin, but the botanical descriptions filed with a new species can be in English.
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John G
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by John G »

krisw wrote:Are you sure? I read the article as saying that the plant names still have to be Latin, but the botanical descriptions filed with a new species can be in English.
You are right. I should have had my second cup of coffee before trying to post.
John Godbey
Springfield, VA
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DelawareJim
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by DelawareJim »

I've spoken with several academics about this. I'm sorry, but the names will still be in Latin. The description of the plant can now be in the authors native tongue.

So a description may now go from this:
Diagnosis: Species nova Neofinetia richardsiana Christenson affinis, a qua sepalis et petalis subroseis, sepalis lateralibis apice mucronatis, calcari curvo et horizontsaliter patenti 1.5-1.6 cm longo bene differt.

to this:
Diagnosis: A new species, Neofinetia richardsiana, attributed to Christenson, the petals and sepals may show pink, sepals are well differentiated, lateral ending in a sharp point, open, curved and horizontally oriented, 1.5-1.6 cm long.

The consensus seems to be that old schoolers will probably continue to use Latin in the description because that is what they know and are used to. People new to the sciences may begin using their native language because Latin is foreign to them. The problem then becomes while most of us learned the Latin necessary to do our jobs and spoke/wrote a common language, now we will need translators as the description may be written in German, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, or God knows what language. Easier for the writer, more difficult for the rest of the scientific community.

Cheers.
Jim
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150EH
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by 150EH »

I've can't pronounce most of the aquatic names but I've know all the landscape plants for years, it would be like the time the tried to sell us the metric system.
Sincerely,
Tim
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DelawareJim
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by DelawareJim »

Ha, ha. The scientific community uses metric all the time; always has, always will, as it's considered more accurate and more "standard" than the anitquated English system. Heck, the creators of the English system don't even use it anymore. As a matter of fact, there are only 3 countries that don't use the metric system; us, the mucked up country of Liberia, and the military dictatorship of Burma. Good company we keep!

Cheers.
Jim
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150EH
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by 150EH »

We are holding out to be number one, it will be a great day!
Sincerely,
Tim
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halak
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by halak »

150EH wrote:We are holding out to be number one, it will be a great day!
Not for scientists, engineers, wood workers, teachers, etc. Not to mention how much easier it is to calculate an aquarium's volume when using metric. You don't even need a calculator sometimes.
Viktor
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DelawareJim
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by DelawareJim »

Exactly!

Cheers.
Jim
JLW
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Re: Plant names in English

Post by JLW »

A lot of our medications and additives are actually easier to dose in metric, too.

Want to increase your iron, phosphate, copper, nitrate, whatever by 5 ppm? Well, the tank is 150 litres. 1 ppm = 1 mg/L, so 5 mg x 150 = 750 mg of iron. Easy. No guessing and adding so many caps. Even given the dilution of the solution you're adding, its easy.

Metric all the way. :)
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