Talk:Callitropsis

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This article needs some major clarification on the nomenclatural problem of Xanthocyparis vs. Callitropsis. If I'm understanding the situation correctly (strictly from external sources, as it's not at all clear from this article), the problem is that the authors of Xanthocyparis circumscribed it to include the [lecto]type species of an earlier validly published genus, Callitropsis (i.e., C. nootkatensis)--and according to Tropicos, at least, the lectotypification was published in 1979 in a not-so-obscure publication so it was a rather egregious error. This therefore makes Xanthocyparis a nomenclatural synonym of Callitropsis, plain and simple (at least as long as vietnamensis & nootkatensis are considered congeneric). Quite regardless of when the combination Callitropsis nootkatensis was made (in 1944 by Florin, according to Tropicos, apparently because Oersted did not explicitly associate the epithet with the generic name, as required under Art. 33.1 of the ICBN although I have not been able to verify the Florin combination) the issue is that it is the type species of Callitropsis. Is that what's going on here?

As an aside, I'm not sure what hope there is of conserving the name Xanthocyparis, especially now that the name Callitropsis has been taken up by Little et al. and several additional species transferred into it. MrDarwin (talk) 16:17, 15 December 2007 (UTC)