I purchased a plant recently, couldn't find an exact match in PlantFiles, and want to add it. I am, admittedly, a novice when it comes to plant nomenclature so I spent at least a couple of hours reading about classification, etc, on various official sites. The problem is that the info on the plant tag (photo 1) doesn't make sense:
Achillea sp. Ex Utah
From my research, "When referring to a plant in a genus when we do not know which species it is, we use the generic name followed by 'sp.' ie: Achillea sp." That part makes sense.
However: "When 'ex' is a component of the author citation, it denotes the fact that an initial description did not satisfy the rules for valid publication, but that the same name was subsequently validly published by a second author". Is this, on my tag, even supposed to indicate an author?
I could find no author with the name Utah at:
http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do
When I Google "Achillea sp. Ex Utah", I find various pages listing the plant as inventory but only one with slightly more info, and says the plant was collected in Utah:
http://mailman.science.uu.nl/pipermail/alpine-l/2006-November/015673.html
Photo 2 shows the front of the tag with the common name "Yarrow, Tiny Golden"
So, my question is - what do I enter into PlantFiles? Maybe:
Common name: Yarrow
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Achillea
Species:
Cultivar: Tiny Golden
Optional:
Additional cultivar names: maybe enter as on the tag: Achillea subsp. Ex Utah
This message was edited Jun 12, 2015 9:56 PM
