Talk:Author citation (botany)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Plants, an attempt to better organise information in articles related to plants and botany. For more information, visit the project page.
???	This article has not yet received a quality rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received an importance rating on the importance scale.

[edit] self-evident

• in Pinus koraiensis Siebold & Zucc., Siebold is self-evident and the co-author is Zuccarini.

Is Siebold really self-evident here? We can't assume the reader would know which Siebold. According to IPNI, "Siebold" refers to "Philipp Franz (Balthasar) von Siebold 1796-1866". But IPNI also lists a "C.Siebold", which refers to "Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold 1804-1885". Without the IPNI, the reader would have no way of knowing that information, thus it is not self-evident. Am I wrong? --Dforest 11:53, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unknowing authorities

"Note that this person is not necessarily involved in any way with the plant(s) concerned (he or she need not have seen the plant or even be able to recognise it), but is accepted as having published the botanical name."

Precisely how is the author to have "validly published" without knowing anything about the plant or "even [being] able to recognize it?" What authors have published in such manner? This is patently absurd enough on the surface that if true it requires an explanation and an example of such an occurence, or should be ommitted as beyond the realm of the generalist. If this occurs in the case of vanity authorities, then that could simply be explained in the article. Inclusion of difficult and obscure information makes this article less usable to the lay public.

Tokyo Code:

"32.1. In order to be validly published, a name of a taxon ... must: (a) be effectively published ... (b) have a form which complies with the provisions of [various articles] (c) be accompanied by a description or diagnosis or by a reference to a previously and effectively published description or diagnosis ..."

How can an author who is unable to "recognise" a plant publish validly within the guidelines that the name "be accompanied by a description or diagnosis or by a reference to a previously and effectively published description or diagnosis?" How could the author write a description or reference a description of a plant he/she cannot recognize? Again this must be explained and an example given to clarify this information for the layman.

KP Botany 16:36, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Agree. This requires a citation. Hesperian 04:17, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

The only case I can see is a reference using "ex". Or a synonym (which, if memory serves me, doesn'tneed to have been correctly published. Circeus 16:03, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Years in author citations

I have once again removed the years from the example citations. The ICBN does not support years in author citations. If you see it used, it is either an incorrect application of zoological nomenclature, or it is a bibliographic citation.

Regarding the latter, if using Harvard style bibliographic citations, it is acceptable to write

Banksia L.f. (1782)

rather than

Banksia L.f. (L.f. 1782)

Indeed the ICBN uses this form of bibliographic citation itself. But in such cases the year is merely a bibiographic citation; it is not part of the author citation.

This is crucial to the article, so let's get it right. Hesperian 04:17, 5 November 2006 (UTC)