In article ,
K writes:
|
| The taxonomic system is an attempt to reflect the 'family tree' of the
| plants involved. Therefore the assumption is that the various species of
| Prunus are closely enough related to justify them all being in the same
| genus (or, conversely, that they are not sufficiently different to
| justify a split).
|
| Or it could be that Prunus taxonmists tend to be 'lumpers' rather than
| 'splitters' ;-)
|
| How many species does Prunus have? Thymus apparently has around 350

Well, there are about 70 in Bean. What is now Prunus used to be
half a dozen different genera, but they were 'lumped' - whether
that was justified or not, I can't say. The old Prunus was just
the plums.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.