I'm inclined to regard the concernsabout nothospecific taxa as something of a red herring. Are nothospecific names somethingwe, as gardeners, really need to be concerned about? I say NO, and here'swhy: Yes, nothotaxa do provide a name, but is it a name which is reallyuseful in a gardening context? The entities named by nothotaxa are notthe entities we, as gardeners, typically deal with. As gardeners, we are usedto dealing with the teeming swarms of ornamental plants named as clones. If weneed to know the name of a plant, we use its clonal designation. I get the impression that when mostgardeners see nothospecific names, they assume that these names arecultivar, variety or clone names. They are not. Nothospecific namesidentify the GROUP which results from the hybridization of two particularparents. Depending on the degree of heterozygosity between the two parents, themembers of such groups will sometimes display great variation in the qualitiesimportant in horticulture (such as flower color, height, season of bloom and soon). As gardeners, that's not what we want. We need, and most of us want,names which deliver the same entity every time it’s used. And in most cases,that will be the name of a clone. I say don’t waste time ensuring thatnothospecific names are validly published: instead, get busy giving thedistinct plants which make up these nothospecific groups stable clonal names. Jim McKenneyMontgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where several local gardens boast lycoris collections of dozens of varieties. bin/mailman/listinfo/pbs _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…