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Mike Lyle[_1_] · 31-01-2011, 02:01 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:51:28 +0000 (GMT), wrote:

In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

English bluebells are a big responsibility: the Brit Isles have most
of the world population, and they are vulnerable to hybridisation.

Well, yes and no. They are merely a subspecies, with only 11,000
years of difference from the Spanish.

Personally I would give serious consideration to lumping English and
Spanish (and Italian) bluebells into a single species (but I'd want to
read the recentish paper in Taxon), but the consensus classification
gives them species rank.

However, not all authorities agree, and I have considerable suspicion
that the species rank is as much political as scientific.

And sometimes more philatelic than either.

I should
have at least clarified that my remark was my opinion and not the
consensus. As you know, I have a decreasing opinion of many of the
botanical taxonomists, especially English ones.

If the hysteria over their promiscuity isn't justified by the facts,
then I would change my mind. If it is, I would like to know why
they are claimed to be so clearly separate species, but equally
different variants of other plants aren't. Do you have a reference
to that paper, or at least a search key?

Well, OK, if you think it's hysteria, look at it another way. Forget
about the species question, and consider that we have a "mere"
/variety/. This variety has a combination of subjectively desirable
features not found in its "rival" or, it seems, in their hybrids. If
there's a danger of losing it, even in limited areas, I find it
entirely reasonable to agitate for protective measures.

--
Mike.