Dear All- **The below are questions that i have been wondering about for a while - I am well aware and understand all the proposed revisions and papers published on the Cattleya alliance having a background in plant taxonomy. My curiosity is about how the public interprets these types of studies and publications**
With all the taxonomic revision surrounding the genus cattleya I know that there have been many complaints about sorting out the delimitations of the genera Cattleya, Sophronitis, Laelia etc etc. I have seen more people comment on the initial movement of Laelia purpurata and L.tenebrosa into Sophronitis. I was wondering...is the public refusal to accept such a change becuase: A) It is difficult to imagine combining a genus of large purple/pink flowered plants into a genus of small red/orange flowered plants? would it have been more "acceptable" to move Sopronitis into Laelia and have Laelia coccinea and Laelia cernua? B)the name changes have been so frequent causing too much confusion about what you knew previously? (including the new and confusing hybrid grex names) C)the new classification makes it impossible to understand how to tell the genera apart? D) How scientists use DNA analysis to help track the relationships between plants to help determine the classification of groups of related species? I find it interesting that people have "pitchforks and torches" out for taxonomists over the Cattleya alliance but all the changes with Masdevallia, Dendrobium, the Oncidinae,and the Huntleya alliance went by with little public comment. I would love to hear peoples replies and comments about these questions on or off list. Interpretation of scientific data and science writing for mass media is something that I do on a regular basis so this is something that is relevant to what I do. I am also in the process of preparing a presentation for our judging center here in the north east about how to understand and interpret the recent taxonomic revisions. sincerely marc _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
