Some Interesting Changes
These are some changes which perhaps everyone except me already knows about. There are additions, alterations to Latin names and deletions. Deletions are a particular problem in the Kent system because the original book may have recognised a plant which has been deleted in one of the supplements.
Only by checking all three supplements to make sure that the plant has not been deleted from the list can you be sure it remains a Kent species. It is also possible to believe that a species has been deleted when it has had its name changed. In more than one case a new plant has been introduced in Supplement 1 only to be deleted in S2 or S3.
A minute's silence for Shetland Mouse-ear
Recently some friends and I paid a visit to Coire an t-Sneachda in the Cairngorms where we found what we thought was Cerastium arcticum (Arctic Mouse-ear). Checking the VC records for area 96 was surprised to find no record of this species. It wasn't on the BSBI list either but looking down the Cerastium genus in list, I noted that C. nigrescens was now called Arctic Mouse-ear when I had thought Shetland Mouse-ear was the common name for this species.
Supplement 3 of the Kent list simply says on Page 4:
This is the entry for Cerastium arcticum (Arctic Mouse-ear).
There is no explanation for deletions in Kent and the absence of common names makes some of these instructions look like mistakes. A perusal of some of the research done on these species reveals that there is quite a difference between the C. arcticum which grows in Greenland and Northern Norway and the C. arcticum basking in the southerly warmth of the Cairngorms and Shetland. The northerly one is now recognised to be the true C. arcticum and all the southerly ones are now called C. nigrescens.
This is one of the very few cases where not only has the Latin name been changed and the English name has been allocated to a different species. Shetland Mouse-ear is no more but Cerastium nigrescens which has hijacked the common name Arctic Mouse-ear, is more widespread than we thought. This isn't actually a new decision - there was no Cerastium arcticum in the 2003 BSBI list either.
Rogue Taxonomists destroy protected Orchid shock
In Kent's original book 162/3/5 is Epipactis youngiana (Young's Helleborine). For some time now it has been mooted that this should not be a separate species as genetic evidence shows it to be very similar to species 162/3/4 which is Epipactis helleborine (Broad-leaved Helleborine). Although much of the new genetic evidence in orchids has not been included, this species is now deleted from the Kent list. No reason is given but I assume that the genetic work must have contributed to its demise.
Kent Supplement 3 on page 17 instructs:
As this was thought to be a vulnerable and valuable species, an Action Plan still exists to help conserve it. It grows on spoil heaps which could be removed by developers for use as ballast.
Taxonomists, of course, can be much more destructive than JCBs.
Play it again Sam
Remember those meetings in early spring when the leader would show you Spring Cinquefoil and announce that its name was Potentilla tabernaemontani? No-one could spell it or say it so it was with some relief that we noted the taxonomic change to Potentilla neumanniana which was still tricky but not as bad.
It's back. Spring Cinquefoil has returned to its unpronounceable roots as Potentilla tabernaemontani.
Kent Supplement 2 on page 8 instructs:
Even last year I remember someone correcting an old botanical lag who referred to Bog Stitchwort as Stellaria alsine.
"It's changed to Stellaria uliginosa" he was told.
In the same way that if you wait long enough, a fashion sometimes returns, the old lag was right. It's now Stellaria alsine.
Kent Supplement 3 on page 4 instructs:
You say tomato and I say tomahto
Recently European botanists have been referring to Chrysanthemum coronaria as Glebionis coronaria which suggested taxonomic changes might be afoot. Not finding any reference to this change in my own books, I ignored it. An explanation is here:
Glebionis split from Chrysanthemum
but it shows how easy it is to fall behind with names. This changed in 1999!
Kent Supplement 3 on page 14 instructs:
This means that Corn Marigold is now named Glebionis segetum. However at the same time as this supplement was being published Peter Sell and Gina Murell published their long awaited Volume 4 of the Flora of Great Britain and Ireland. In that they too have had a go at Corn Marigold and have decided that it is really Xanthophthalmum segetum.
Some other changes which you probably already know
Malus domestica (Apple) has become Malus pumila
Galanthus ikariae (Green Snowdrop) has become Galanthus woronowii
Rosa pimpinellifolia (Burnet Rose) has become Rosa spinosissima
Dactylorhiza occidentalis (Western Marsh-orchid)replaces D. majalis
Dactylorhiza traunsteineroides (Narrow-leaved Marsh-orchid) replaces D. traunsteineri and subsumes D. lapponica which was deleted in supplement 2