Well, we're not saying goodbye to Acer palmatum or Abies concolor or Zelcova serrata anytime soon. The system of botanical nomenclature invented by Linnaeus in the 18th century survives. But as of January 1st of this year, if you find a new species of plant, you will no longer have to provide a description of it in Latin in order to have it accepted -- you can publish your new description in English electronically.
The new rules were adopted by the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne, Australia, last July in an effort to speed up recognition of new plant species before they're all wiped out by global warming. James Miller, Dean and VP for Science at the New York Botanical Garden was the lead author of the new rules published in the online journal PhytoKeys.
"Eliminating the Latin requirement and moving to electronic publication will really expedite and simplify the process of describing the diversity that's out there," he wrote. Botanists describe about two thousand new species every year, and the rate has been held up by the fact that it takes many of the scientists a long time to accurately describe the new plants in Latin. Publishing papers in scientific journals also takes months, if not years. So far, they've described about 200 thousand species, less than half of the plants, fungi and algae that inhabit the planet.
As Miller put it in his article, "In an age where almost certainly 20 percent of the world's plant species, and undoubtedly much greater percentages of fungi and algae, remain to be discovered, described and named, this step will hopefully help taxonomists in their race to document biological diversity before it is lost to the deforestation and habitat degradation that threatens their extinction."
Nota bene.
Fascinating, Jane. Nomenclature is an area that I know little about. So glad for this post. Thanks.
Posted by: carolyn mullet | January 11, 2012 at 05:30 AM