Hi Alastair, Catalogue of Life is fine but it contains things that bother me - unresolved taxonomic issues. For example they state that Basella alba and Basella rubra are synonyms. This is obviously not correct if you have ever seen both plants. Have you ever read anywhere that the reddish variety could be a cultivar of B. alba? I haven't, except on the M.M.P.N.D. I would say that Basella rubra is an invalid name but not a synonym of B. alba. Moreover Indian scholars use* *Basella alba L. var. rubra (L.) Stewart. * *Are they wrong? or are they ignored?
On Tuesday, March 6, 2012 7:19:12 PM UTC+11, Plant Diversity wrote: > > You might also try the Catalogue of Life web site for names and synonyms. > It does not have a complete coverage of names, but the ones it has are > usually current, give synonymy and often links to further information. > http://www.sp2000.org/ > > Alastair > http://www.facebook.com/PlantDiversity >
