I have never cone across the statement that Basella rubra L. is an invalid name. It is only that differences are not strong enough to recognize it an independent species. Since both species were described on the same date in Species Plantarum of Linnaeus, the author who merged these two species chose B. alba L. as correct name and B. rubra L. as synonym.
-- Dr. Gurcharan Singh Retired Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/ http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 12:45 AM, OZmic <[email protected]> wrote: > 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<http://www.facebook.com/PlantDiversity> >> >
