There have been many mentions of peer reviewed articles on this forum. When it comes to checking the veracity of my orchid species names as supplied by the seller, I am a "paint by numbers" taxonomist. In other words I first look for a photo (Jay's IOPSE is a favourite site) that matches then I read up on that name to see whether it fits my plants. Now here is my motivation for peer reviewed photos on websites. I was given a plant labelled as Maxillaria sanguinolenta which was originally imported by the donor from Mrs Strobel in Ecaudor. I did a Google search and landed up ay Jay's IOPSE where he gives the name as a synonym for Maxillaria miniata. Something that looks very different to my plant. Thinking that because Mrs Strobel sold Ecaudorian orchid species, I asked a friend who had had dealings with Ecaugenera to send them a photo to see if they could solve the riddle for me. I got a reply from my friend saying that the plant was Maxillaria puncto-striata, a species from Costa Rica. I thought it strange that Mrs Strobel, a supplier of Ecaudor species, should sell the donor a Costa Rican species. So back to Google and I landed up at Pieter Brouwer's site www.pbase.com/glazemaker/max where there are some excellent photos and sure enough he illustrates a planrt identical with mine with the same name. I then did a Google search for Maxillaria puncto-striata and landed up at The Maxillaria Tribe website www.geocities.com/rainforest/5278/maxspecies2.html and there they have a photo credited to David P. Banks which looks very different to Pieter's photo and my plant. I then went back to the previous page at that site (change the 2 in the address to a 1) and there they have another photo credited to David P. Banks (the identical photo) labelled as Maxillaria acutipetala. To me this picture looks like a Maxillaria picta or Maxillaria ubatubana (cannot say which from the photo). So I would ask you all to go to those sites, take a look and comment on the question of peer reviews of photos on websites and give some suggestions as to how it would be done. Perhaps David P. Banks (if he subscribes) would like to comment on whether or not his slides have been mislabelled. Thanks guys Keep well and kind regards Mike South Africa
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