Category talk:Vaccinium

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[edit] Is a Vaccinium category a good idea?

Do we really want a category for the polyphyletic genus Vaccinium as opposed to the tribe Vaccinieae? I suppose it isn't a big deal yet, but unless I'm mis-reading the tea leaves I expect the taxonomy of this tribe to be vastly changed within a few years, including many moves between genera (see Kathleen A. Kron, E. Ann Powell and J. L. Luteyn (2002). "Phylogenetic relationships within the blueberry tribe (Vaccinieae, Ericaceae) based on sequence data from MATK and nuclear ribosomal ITS regions, with comments on the placement of Satyria". American Journal of Botany 89: 327–336. ). The good news is that the species which are most familiar (at least to Europeans and North Americans) like blueberry, cranberry, etc, mostly cluster with each other (and a few other genera like Gaylussacia). Now, making a category for the tribe is a bet of a different sort: that the tribe will stick around intact, and I have only things like Kron's Ericaceae Homepage to supply as (rough) evidence for that hunch. Kingdon (talk) 16:37, 7 May 2008 (UTC)