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The problem, as Steve B.
well stated, has arisen from the misuse of the word "alba". Even today, lots a people, especially commercial growers, use the term for just about everything under the sun, as they think they get more money for the plant that way (which is, from their point of view, legitimate) as the "general public" wants to be fooled. So anything that was not "normal" was called "alba" or "albescens" no matter what colour the plant had. In Case's book it even says that P. topperi, a variant of kolopakingii with BROWN flowers, is an albino. For that alone, the woman (and the editor at Timber Press) should have been flogged. (there are a lot of other reasons). The Cash book, however, being the worst (but most sold) of all slipper orchid books thus confused many people Pap. armeniacum without the pattern on the staminode is pure yellow ... The growers scream "hurrah" an alba ... The plants should be called "flavumpurum" or something like that or "immaculatum" but people don't want to buy "flavumpurum" or "immaculatum" they want to buy "alba" Same thing for the albino if P. venustum ... it is green and white (predominantly green) ... its official name is "var. measuresianum" but a lot of orchid freaks can't even pronounce that ... and it brings more money as "var. alba" etc. etc. etc. The problem is not with the taxonomists ... the problem is with the general orchid community that does a) not want to spend money on books from those that have the expertise and b) lack the basic knowledge (and of course would not dream of buying a basic textbook on botany). If everyone would simply take a Latin dictionary and look up the word "alba" he would be able to read that the word means nothing but "white". Thus if everyone simply would keep to the principle that only plants with a pure white flower be referred to as "alba" ... life would be much easier. All the rest can then be done by "intelligence" ... using terminology such as "flava, virida, albovirida etc." as I and others have done. And Steve, I think that we should not compare plants with animals or humans, there are lots of basic differences and the physiology is by no means identical. regards Guido -- Prof. Dr. Guido J. Braem Naunheimer Str. 17 35633 Lahnau Deutschland/Germany |
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