Amateur Taxonomist Needs to Know

From: Don Burns <burns at mobot.org> on 1997.01.21 at 01:50:26(196) When is it appropriate to capitalize the species name in the scientific name of a plant? I was just looking at a particular list of species and found, for example: +More ANTHURIUM candidum Bull ANTHURIUM Candolleanum Sodiro Until now I have always seen the species name not capitalized. But here we have both upper and lower cases. I hope I am not fueling a debate here, but certainly there must be a standard to follow. I am working on a prototype Anthurium web page, so I want to be certain it written in a manner acceptable to the scientific community. Don

From: BIHOREL at cris.com (Christian Feuillet) on 1997.01.21 at 05:19:10(200) >When is it appropriate to capitalize the species name in the scientific >name of a plant? I was just looking at a particular list of species and >found, for example: +More > >ANTHURIUM candidum Bull >ANTHURIUM Candolleanum Sodiro > >Until now I have always seen the species name not capitalized. But here >we have both upper and lower cases. I hope I am not fueling a debate >here, but certainly there must be a standard to follow. I am working on >a prototype Anthurium web page, so I want to be certain it written in a >manner acceptable to the scientific community. > >Don > > According to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the rule is to not capitalize the species. And the Code itself does not ... BUT it adds "although authors desiring to use initial capital letters may do so when the epithets are directly derived from the names of persons (whether actual or mythical), or are vernacular (or non-Latin) names, or are former generic names." The only sure way to be right and consistent is to not use a capital letter for species names. ,--- \\/ ~ ~ \// ( @ @ ) -----oOOo-- (_) --oOOo----------------------- | | | Christian FEUILLET | | | | 11400 Hennessey Dr. | BIHOREL@cris.com | | Beltsville MD 20705 | (301) 937 9197 | | | | TROPICS GENEALOGY CATS FRANCE PLANTS ... | |_____________________________________________|

Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.