Naming caution

[Roy Herold]

Hello? Hello? Is anybody awake out there?

I made what I thought was an interesting addition to the Arisaema Page last
night, announced it to the group, and now you're complaining about lack of
pictures of the Kaichen material. I just went back and looked at the
pictures I posted of Wilbert's green spathed A. bockii (which he received
as A. du-bois-reymondii-- no, I did NOT get the Kaichen number from him),
and they correspond exactly with Ray's description. Right down to the black
spots on the leaves, and some degree of picoteeing on one of the flowers.
Remember, however, that this kind of spathe coloration has little, if
anything, to do with species determination. Witness the variation in the
lowly A. triphyllum, for example.

It's a real pity that Chen Yi has insisted on shipping out blatantly
misidentified material. It's not a problem for folks like us who take the
time to key it out, but by the time that is done, it's too late. My guess
is that it may have been a business decision-- the overseas nurseries who
are buying in her stock for resale want a name-- any name-- to give to
their customers, not just a number. Some nurseries are taking the time to
grow the stock on for a year to identify it (bless them...), but most
aren't. I just stumbled across a web site today (Dragon Agro or something),
that had each and every one of the Kaichen arisaemas offered for sale (at a
standard ~10x markup), and had all of the bogus pictures on display.

I'm sure that Wilbert, Guy, Greg, and others are making progress toward
positive ID's on this material, and that the AEG shouldn't worry about
getting erroneous seed into distribution. Beyond suggesting an ID for the
mixed-up du-bois-reymondii, Wilbert has also proposed that the material
shipped as A. dilatatum is actually A. wilsonii. Pictures of these will
follow later this week. Please look at them-- it's for your own education.
Where possible, I will also add the Kaichen number. Happy?

--Roy