<div dir="ltr">A related perspective. My wife has a plant nursery and we, like most dedicated gardeners, seem to have little problem in learning the Latin Name plus the common name of a subspecies or of a cultivar (cultivated variety). A pine found by an Elk Hunter in the Wallowa Mtns and extensively propagated (but still quite expensive) is a normal bright green in summer like any other Lodgepole Pine, but in winter turns to a brilliant gold. This is not fall color, the same needles are changing colors seasonally back and forth. it was named for Chief Joseph, a later (than the trees) inhabitant of these mountains.. <div><i>Pinus contorta latifolia</i> 'Chief Joseph'. Lodgepole Pine. There are many thousands of these in cultivation today, all propagated by grafting from this one fantastic 'find'. Grafts of grafts, etc. A genetic modification. Such varieties cannot be propagated by seed as they don't come true. Only vegetatively.<div>Before 1959 it was fashionable to give a cultivated variety a latin name. This might have named the above pine
<i>Pinus contorta latifolia</i> 'Aurea'.. After 1959 such use of Latin for newly named cultivated varieties was outlawed, as was the use of cv. to indicate a cultivar. The initials cv. are now just assumed in the name. </div><div>Anyhow my main point is that a great many 'plant people' are quite happy using Latin names. As for me I'm quite happy with English names for birds. But I have my limits. Siberian Tit (mostly a far northern Eurasian resident) was changed to Gray-headed Chickadee. Arggg. Later, Blue-throated Hummingbird was changed by the same group to Blue-throated Mountain-gem. Double Argg-Argg. (I don't know the latin word for Argggg)</div><div>Bob OBrien Portland</div><div><br><div><br><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 3:13 PM Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney <<a href="mailto:festuca@comcast.net">festuca@comcast.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
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<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">Bob Righter from Denver posted this on the Colorado birding chat group. I thought it might be an interesting read for those of us who are 'anxiously' awaiting action from the AOS on revising the Common Names of birds that are named after People.</span>
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<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">"From chatter on the internet emerges an interesting article by Ludlow Griscom written in 1947 “Common Sense in Common names.” Griscom, was a power house in the early 1900s and greatly influenced Roger Tory Peterson. The full article can be accessed through Google. I’ve taken the liberty of just featuring the last paragraph which I thought was the most poignant to our conversation on Bird Names:</span>
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<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt"><br>"NO “simple and logical principles” for vernacular nomenclature can be formulated. There are far too many birds; their variations, relationships, and ranges are not simple or logical. Their habits and habitats change from season to season, from one section of the continent to another, from century to century. Which season, which habitat, which section of the country is to be the basis for the “appropriate or associative” name?"</span>
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<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">The article can be read at <a href="https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v059n03/p0131-p0138.pdf" target="_blank">https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v059n03/p0131-p0138.pdf</a></span>
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<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">Enjoy!</span>
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<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt"> - Jon. Anderson</span>
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<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt"> Olympia</span>
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