It was me who first used the abbreviation s.l. , to the taxa Juniperus
chinensis.

Thanks Iris for the good botanical explaination on the subject.

Regards GEG


P van Rijckevorsel skrev i
a.net...
An "irregular vase-shape" does not sound all that wide ;-)

Iris Cohen schreef in berichtnieuws
I think at this point we had better explain to those who are new to
botany, when you see the abbreviation s. l. after the name of a genus or
species, it stands for sensu lato, in the wide sense. This means the
species
with all the varieties on its fringes thrown in. The opposite is s. s.,
sensu stricta, in the narrow sense. That is why I said that with the
elimination of Juniperus xmedia, and the transfer of several of its
cultivars back to J. chinensis, that species just got wider. Peter was
trying to be funny.
Iris,

+ + +
Well it was you who used the abbreviation, so if you feel it needs
explaining ... Note that on occassion a lot more can be "thrown in" than
varieties. These days it is not exceptional to see a dozen or so
neighbouring species absorbed in a wider defined species during a
revision.

On a more serious note: I am not at all sure if adding new cultivars adds
anything to a species concept, or the "sense" of a species.

For instance does developing a weird new pepper cultivar extend the
species
limits of Capsicum annuum, if it belongs to that species?

If it should be a hybrid species, that the new cultivar is added to, it
does
not make any difference whatsoever. The limits of a hybrid species are set
by parentage.

The delimitation of any given species is determined by taxonomists, who
tend
to ignore cultivars (and justly so?).
PvR