Leo,
Why exactly is it "absurd nonsense" to place
Sophronitis cernua and Laelia tenebrosa in the same
genus? The size difference within the genus Cattleya
is almost as great as the difference between L.
tenebrosa and S. cernua. We know that changes in
orchid flower morphology can evolve rapidly and that
it probably requires very few mutations to produce
dramatic differences in size. If the recent molecular
data has shown anything, it's that 250 years of
morphological taxonomy is subject to its own
systematic errors. We can't simply dismiss the trees
as obviously wrong if they don't fit presuppositions
about the evolution of the plants. If the particular
segment that was sequenced was "inappropriate,"
explaining exactly why would help to illuminate
something new about the evolution of the plants.
Nick
--
Nicholas Plummer
Durham, NC, USA
____________________________________________________________________________________
Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play
Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
http://sims.yahoo.com/
_______________________________________________
the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD)
[email protected]
http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
