Wild pansy

[Worms]

I get a few on my driveway every year but this is the first all purple one I've had.

 

[Phone]

Hi Worms,

 

You've been missed.

 

I nicked this from Google Images

 

 

Wild VIOLET

Phone

[Worms]

Hi phone, a good reason for the world adopting Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature system for the classification of flora and fauna! Below are four of the UK's commonest 'Violets'

 

Wild Pansy (Viola tricolor), Field Pansy (Viola arvensis) Sweet violet (Viola odorata), Dog Violet (Viola riviniana)

 

Wild Pansy (also known as 'Heart's ease') probably has half a dozen different common names in the UK depending on where you live/how old you are.

 

[Vagabond]

, a good reason for the world adopting Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature system for the classification of flora and fauna!

So biologists have been telling us since 1758

 

Trouble is......

 

When I retired, my university colleagues presented me with the three volume "Catalog of Fishes" , published by the California Academy of Sciences. Each volume weighs over five pounds - and its printed on thin paper

 

It lists every "scientific name" ever used for fish.

 

The number of ichthyologists who have "discovered" a "new" species and given it a spurious scientific name is just unbelievable, as is the number of half-baked biologists who think scientific immortality can be achieved by "reclassifying" this group or that.

 

The result is that almost every widely-distributed species has a scientific name and umpteen scientific synonyms. Many of these synonyms have been published as the "correct" scientific name.

There was a thread on AN about a couple of years ago re the "correct" scientific name of the chub (the British one) which illustrates this point well.

 

"Catalog of Fishes" does steer you through the morass of scientific and pseudo-scientific names, but don't let anyone tell you that the use of scientific names "avoids confusion" There is a Byzantine web of rules, priorities and internecine warfare behind every "scientific name"

Edited June 4, 2014 by Vagabond

[Dave H]

Beautiful photograph

[Vagabond]

Beautiful photograph

Indeed it is.

 

Here is one I found up on Ashdown Forest last year

 

 

Only a bog-standard lens on my lightweight camera, so not as sharp as the other pics, but an interesting variation of colour and pattern - Worms - perhaps a new species ? .

Edited June 4, 2014 by Vagabond

[Worms]

So biologists have been telling us since 1758

 

Trouble is......

 

When I retired, my university colleagues presented me with the three volume "Catalog of Fishes" , published by the California Academy of Sciences. Each volume weighs over five pounds - and its printed on thin paper

 

It lists every "scientific name" ever used for fish.

 

The number of ichthyologists who have "discovered" a "new" species and given it a spurious scientific name is just unbelievable, as is the number of half-baked biologists who think scientific immortality can be achieved by "reclassifying" this group or that.

 

The result is that almost every widely-distributed species has a scientific name and umpteen scientific synonyms. Many of these synonyms have been published as the "correct" scientific name.

There was a thread on AN about a couple of years ago re the "correct" scientific name of the chub (the British one) which illustrates this point well.

 

"Catalog of Fishes" does steer you through the morass of scientific and pseudo-scientific names, but don't let anyone tell you that the use of scientific names "avoids confusion" There is a Byzantine web of rules, priorities and internecine warfare behind every "scientific name"

I know only too well about the vagaries of nomenclature Dave....My post-grad degree in taxonomy was studied at the NHM London through Imperial College....great fun but, as you say "a morass" of confusion initially, especially with synonyms....some of the newer databases have smoothed the way a little though .

 

I thought that the Violas were a reasonable example of showing how confusion can be clarified a little!

[Vagabond]

My post-grad degree in taxonomy was studied at the NHM London through Imperial College....great fun but, as you say "a morass" of confusion initially, especially with synonyms....

Ah, right. I'm preaching to the converted then

 

During my academic life I think I came across more heated arguments over taxonomy than all other subjects put together ! Lumpers and splitters with Lilliputian arguments. Creatures and plants are what they are - taxonomic classification, being man-made, may not fit exactly everywhere.

 

Have you ever read H.G.Wells's short story "The Moth" ?

[Worms]

Ah, right. I'm preaching to the converted then

 

During my academic life I think I came across more heated arguments over taxonomy than all other subjects put together ! Lumpers and splitters with Lilliputian arguments. Creatures and plants are what they are - taxonomic classification, being man-made, may not fit exactly everywhere.

 

Have you ever read H.G.Wells's short story "The Moth" ?

Yes I have.....I hope I am not so obsessed that I end up in the asylum