The Name Game - Part 1

[Not a Number]

Drosera × beleziana or D. × belezeana or D. × eloisiana or ?

In 1891 the 5th volume of Journal de botanique. contained the description and drawing by E.G. Camus of a plant he named Drosera x beleziana. He described the plant as a natural hybrid of D. intermedia and D. rotundifolia. The specimen was collected on May 27, 1890 by Mary Beleze from a bog in the Foret de Rambouillet near Saint-Léger, France (SW of Paris). Later taxonomist feel that under the rules of latinization of names it should be changed orthographically to Drosera × belezeana.

Camus' drawings and description from Journal de botanique can be viewed (and downloaded) online here:
t. 5 (1891) - Journal de botanique. - Biodiversity Heritage Library
t. 5 (1891) - Journal de botanique. - Biodiversity Heritage Library

For those who love the arcane here is the description in the original text followed by a crude translation into English via Google Translate

Feuilles étalées, à limbe suborbiculaire, brusquement contracté
en pétiole. Scapes 1, 2, 3, dépassant longuement les
feuilles, le plus souvent courbés à la base puis dressés brusquement,
quelquefois dressés, mais naissant toujours à l'aisselle des
feuilles inférieures et non au centre de la rosette. Capsule environ
de la longueur du calice. Graines avortées ou mal formées,
à testa un peu tuberculeux. Cette hybride ressemble par ses
feuilles au D. rotundifolia ; par sa hampe, elle se rapproche du
D. intermedia.

Leaves unfolded at suborbicular limb suddenly contracted
in petiole. Scapes 1, 2, 3, length exceeding
leaves, usually curved at the base and drawn abruptly,
sometimes prepared, but still nascent in the axils of
lower leaves and not in the center of the rosette. capsule about
the length of the calyx. Aborted or malformed seeds
testa slightly to tuberculosis. This hybrid resembles its
D. rotundifolia leaves; by its stem, it moves closer to the
D. intermedia.

A scan of the Mlle. Beleze's herbarium specimen can be found online here:
http://sonneratphoto.mnhn.fr/2012/06/06/1/P04963231.jpg

Some later taxonomists on examining the herbarium specimen have come to believe the specimen is actually Drosera rotundifolia. If this is so then a few possibilities arise:

1. the current name usage (e.g. D. × beleziana/belezeana) would be conserved and a new type specimen be put on file
2. the current name would be considered a synonym of D. rotundifolia and a new name found.

Believing #2 to be the case Tim Baily in the UK published a description and submitted a herbarium type specimen to the Kew Botanical Gardens naming the hybrid Drosera × eloisiana. The description was published in the Spring 2015 newsletter of the Carnivorous Plant Society (UK) - PlantaCarnivora (v37n1).

So now it seems D. intermedia × rotundifolia can now be called Drosera × eloisiana.

Well maybe not, according to International Code of Nomenclature Art. 57.1 and Art. 14 the current usage (name) can be (and probably should be) conserved. All that is needed is a new herbarium type specimen and a formal proposal to conserve the D. beleziana/belezena name be published.

The moral of the story? Don't rush off to change the labels on your plants. It can take years for some name changes to gain acceptance. Some never do.

 

[bluemax]

It seems there are always those who are in a hurry for new names for known plants. Some see the names of taxonomy as an artist's canvas, and some see them as simple means to reference information. I figure you can shake it up and rename it all in any number of ways but who needs the turmoil? There will always be discrepancies that allow for this as our methods of grouping organisms are by nature imperfect. I think in the case you state pragmatism has won the day. I don't mean to say that there is no need for new naming and clarification among inadequately researched species. There is still much to be discovered.

 

[DJ57]

Thank you Warren for posting this information, very informative.

Another name change in the works, and more confusion generated. I'm still trying to get use to the D. indica name change to finlaysoniana!

 

[Not a Number]

Orhographic changes like D. belezeana vs D. beleziana don't bother me too much. D. hamiltoni becomes D. hamiltonii. D. dilatato-petiolaris becomes D. dilatatopetiolaris. It just makes search online more difficult if the alternate spellings are not cross-indexed or the search doesn't have fuzzy logic rules.

Of interest to note that someone had written on the label of the herbarium specimen "D. rotundifolia". I've seen similar notation on the specimen for D. spirallis (D.gramanifolia in this case).

 

[hcarlton]

DJ57: It wasn't changed to finlaysoniana per se. There is still a D. indica, but the plant most common in cultivation is another species in the complex. It's roughly along the lines of the situation that has produced almost a dozen new indica-group species from Australia......

I'm glad to see that there is still a way (and a logical one at that) to preserve the D. x beleziana name, as the new one just sounds odd to me, and the whole situation rather pointless....the description was for the hybrid even if there was a specimen mix-up, so to throw away the name for an entirely new one over that error seems wasteful...

 

[bluemax]

Orhographic changes like D. belezeana vs D. beleziana don't bother me too much. D. hamiltoni becomes D. hamiltonii. D. dilatato-petiolaris becomes D. dilatatopetiolaris.

Now that explains what happened to the hyphen in dilatato-petiolaris. 'Hadn't heard about that one.

 

[jimscott]

 

[FrankenSnyder]

I will continue to honor the original name D. x beleziana Camus. I am not fooled by Schlauer’s bogus “orthographic” assertion that using D. belezeana *Schlauer* is no different. Schlauer intends to tag his name on it to glorify himself; Outrageous. Check out these two other examples where he’s done just that on his ICPS Plant Name Database:
Carnivorous Plant Database
D. anglica var. linglica --Schlauer
D. anglica var. woodii --Schauer

 

[marcus_r]

Oh, how this reminds me of the good old times. Remember the Venus Mousetrap crap storm over on the listserv, erm, dunno, 15 years ago? (Or more?)