In article ,
Dave Poole writes:
|
| Moderation is the key - shift something that is clearly wrong, but
| don't go smashing things up and re-inventing new genera for no
| genuinely good reason. Especially when (as in the case of orchids ie.
| Odontoglossum, now decimated into half a dozen or more weird genera)
| they are clearly genetically compatible and therefore very closely
| allied.

I think that's a very good criterion. When inter-generic hybrids
are easy to produce, and fertile, that surely is evidence that the
generic boundaries are too specific?

| Crikey, I bet the Op (DC) is wondering what can of worms he's opened
| up. We haven't had a decent thrash-out like this here on urg for a
| long time. All because of an un-named Doritaenopsis hybrid too!

Well, we could get started on my bugbear - cladists! Obviously
Prunus spinosa needs to be abolished as a category, because it is
no sort of a clade (being a descendant of P. cerasifera and
Microcerasus/Prunus microcarpa and an ancestor of P. domestica).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.