>Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 18:34:37 -0400 >From: Prem Subrahmanyam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [OGD] Fwd: Habenaria rhodocheila vs. ericmichaelii > >So, will none of the taxonomists on this forum reply to my e-mail? > > > >>Well, >> my pink form rhodocheila (what Eric Christenson now calls >>H. ericmichaelii) is opening. I can see some definite differences >>between the flower forms, the general carriage of the plant, the >>foliage, etc. My question is this: if the pink form of H. rhodocheila >>was the basis for the description of the species and the orange form >>discovered later (or perhaps lumped later into H. rhodocheila), is it >>proper to separate out the type form into a new species and leave the >>orange form in the original species, especially considering the fact >>that the rose-lipped form is more appropriate to the specific epithet? >> >>I would think just the obverse to be more appropriate...put the orange >>form into its own species and leave the rose-lipped form in the species >>in which it was originally described. >> >>
Dear Prem, maybe some of us taxonomists have not always the time to deal with this list. _If_ the pink form of H. rhodocheila was the basis of the description it is - by definition - the type form. If the "orange form" does not differ from the pink form by anything but the flower color, we have one single species with two flower color variations. Flower color difference is not enough to create a separate species. To your second question: if one were to separate the species, the PINK form would have to remain H. rhodocheila as it is the type form of the species . What is more appropriate (for whoever) or what was discovered first is of no importance. What counts is the original description of H. rhodocheila ... and if that states that the flower is pink ... then, as I already said above, that is the real H. rhodocheila. Guido Dr. Guido J. Braem
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