Written by Debbie King.
What's in a name?
Okay so we went out on our weekly walk into our
local reserve, I have about 50 photos, some on my camera and some on my phone,
(per walk) a person can't be too careful about how many photos you take of one
particular red flower. I figure I need to store them on my laptop before I land
up losing them and in a well thoughtout plan I open a new "file" or
is it a "folder"? Did I mention I am not really computer literate but
I am clever, I mean I have two post doctorate degrees, albeit it in the Arts
and Humanities, but this computer and naming thing can't be all that difficult,
I mean I'm clever.
So, I have pristine yellow cover things all in
lines on my laptop called ""Asteraceae",
"Crassulaceae", "Iridacea", "Rubiacea" you get
the the drift, two hundred and twenty five of them as I am determined to do
this properly. Good. Now how do I get them from my phone or camera onto my
laptop? Many days and cables and exclamations and disappearances into cyber
ether later and I have finally figured that all out. Good.
I have a lovely clear photo of an Alepidia, so I
start the hunt for where to place it. I cannot find a folder or is it a file to
place it in, no matter I'll look at another flower, one maybe that is more
common, how about this beautiful little purple spotty one called Gladiolis,
cannot seem to find its folder either, mmmmm. Okay. No problem, I must have
made a mistake when I first put up all these folders with the names, but it
looks simple, make a new one and just add "aceae" on the end. So, that
is what I do, my files start to mount up, looking beautiful and so scientific
with all these new names like "alepediaaceae" too many "a"s
perhaps I should take one "a" out, wait a while and see, I have
"gladiolisacea", "pentenisiaacea", shew my flower foldery
files are growing, faster than the flowers in the grasslands. I have added to
Linnaeus's nomenclature, I bet if I could have a chat to him he would be proud
of my scientific approach. But, I have a niggle in my mind that something is
not quite right.
Meanwhile, back out in the beautiful reserve
there are eight of us members clustered on a path, five people are talking at
once, I am furiously scribbling names. I have zyzgium kordata, sichotria
pinata, casula empogona, tricalasia lancelot, empogona capensis. Then someone
says tricalasia capensis; scratch, scratch with the pencil in the notebook. I
get home, take out my notebook, camera and reference book and start my search.
I cannot find anything! No plant starting in "z" followed by
"k". And so it goes.
This is proving more difficult than I thought, I
do not tell anyone in the group, after all they are so wise and these names
just trip off their tongues, I battle on. I do mention I am having a little
difficulty putting my pretty photos in the right place. SANBI red list and iNat
are mentioned, something new which has to be navigated!. Back home and I decide
to consult Google, so I type in gladiolis and low and behold I have an AHA
moment, this flower belongs to the Iridacea family, hold on a moment, isn't
that the name on one of my pristine yellow folders, with no photos in it yet?
Yes, it is! Oh no! I have made up my own families, don't tell anyone in my
group, I have muddled up genus of one plant with species of another plant, no
wonder I cannot find anything! And as for the phonetic spelling, it is enough
to make anyone weep.
Start again. Carefully move photo to correct
Family file, with correct genus and species name, (which comes first, G before
S, so Genus then Species), poor Linnaeus must be rolling in his grave!
What is in a name, Shakespeare wrote that a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet? Does it matter? Yes! Phonetic spelling
aside, family, genus, species names all matter, (even if the boffins keep
changing it before I have even managed to get it into the correct file)! Ah, a
day in the life of a totally green, yet enthusiastic Pondoland CREW member
which I would not give up for anything. Thank goodness, I realized what I was
doing before the rest of the members politely asked me to leave. - Debbie King
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| Brachystelma australe APOCYNACEAE |
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| Brachystelma australe APOCYNACEAE |
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| Maggie almost got taken out by THIS rock as Tracy took a step up onto a ledge and this boulder came hurtling down! Just imagine if Maggie was crushed by this rock. |
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| Debbie rock surfing |
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| Crassula nudicaulis var. nudicaulis CRASSULACEAE |
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| Crassula nudicaulis var. nudicaulis CRASSULACEAE |
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| Satyrium trinerve ORCHIDACEAE Monocotyledons |
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| Lasiosiphon triplinervis was Gnidia THYMELAEACEAE |
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| Berkheya rhapontica ASTERACEAE |
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| Berkheya rhapontica ASTERACEAE |
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| Berkheya rhapontica ASTERACEAE |
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| Diospyros villosa var. villosa EBENACEAE |
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| Habenaria woodii ORCHIDACEAE Monocotyledons |
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| Habenaria woodii ORCHIDACEAE Monocotyledons |
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| Ralph standing amongst the Syncolostemon rotundifolius LAMIACEAE Pondoland C.R.E.W. Maggie A, Anne S, Dorothy M, Ralph P, Tracy T and Gail B-W. “Nature is not on the internet.” — Unknown |
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