Purposely Misnamed Plants

[BenB]

I know this is happening with Buces. Many people say there is really only about a dozen of them, but people intentionally give them different names to make it seem like there is something new and exciting, but is it being done in other genera as well? I saw a sell for a Crypt today that I had never seen before. I looked it up, and it doesn't seem to exist outside of a couple aquarium plant vendors. I don't want to identify the seller because they might not know and no reason to cause any drama. I get that some plants have synonyms like Pogostemon decanensis and Pogostemon erectus are the same plant. Plants have depreciated synonyms all the time, but just making up something makes me crazy. Ok End rant.

Well actually I just found another sell that have for a Crypt that doesn't exist, that I can find.

 

[Art]

Hey Ben, how are you?

This is also commonly seen in the saltwater side with corals listed with really fantastic names. Things like Superman, Orange Juice, and Purple Haze come to mind.

I think these names are descriptive sometimes but I see how they can clearly confuse the public. My personal feeling is that any grower or wholesaler that is selling plants such make an effort to establish the correct scientific name. If they want to then give it some funky name, fine. However, the scientific name should always be there.

One of the things we’ve also seen lately is the “white” phenomenon where a plant has some white leaves. More often than not, this mutation later goes away when the hobbyists puts it in their aquarium. This happens for many reasons but I feel some sort of warning should be listed when someone goes to buy it.

Imagine paying a hefty premium for a white version only to have it turn green after a while…

 

[BenB]

Hey Ben, how are you?

OK here. Winter is sucking. I think its about over though. Its water change day.... ugh.

This is also commonly seen in the saltwater side with corals listed with really fantastic names. Things like Superman, Orange Juice, and Purple Haze come to mind.

Had completely forgotten about those. Angry Bird and JF Homewrecker are like over $1000 and probably was just a $5 frag they found somewhere.

I think these names are descriptive sometimes but I see how they can clearly confuse the public. My personal feeling is that any grower or wholesaler that is selling plants such make an effort to establish the correct scientific name. If they want to then give it some funky name, fine. However, the scientific name should always be there.

Yeah, I've always felt like in planted tanks, we've mostly always tried to make a better effort. Not always succeeded. Not many of us are taxonomist.

One of the things we’ve also seen lately is the “white” phenomenon where a plant has some white leaves. More often than not, this mutation later goes away when the hobbyists puts it in their aquarium. This happens for many reasons but I feel some sort of warning should be listed when someone goes to buy it.

Imagine paying a hefty premium for a white version only to have it turn green after a while…

I am not a fan of those and it just seems they get covered in algae anyway unless you are Tom Barr.

 

[HarryL]

I totally agree especially when I’m shopping for buce. I prefer referring to plants with their scientific names but it’s almost impossible to do that with most buce they sell out there. Makes me paranoid if my “Alamanda Blue” is the same as some other differently named buce.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Agreed with buce

at this point my brain just goes:
if leaf round: brownie type
if leaf skinny: kedang/catherine type

unga bunga

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

The big problem with buce is that they are being unsatainably harvested, this leads to exporter's in the region not providing collection information and no way for hobbyist to have any idea of what they have. Buce is also relatively new to the hobby and with the lack of scientific studies currently of ornamental aquarium species it will be decades before hobbyist have any valid way to identify species.

I have also seen this in cryptocoryne genus.

Another issue is that some of these species of both genus may not be truly aquatic.

In general when I buy I usually steer clear of buying anything that only has a common name. This is even true when I buy fish.

 

[ElleDee]

To me, people giving the same plant multiple names points to a lack of innovation in the industry. Consumers want new stuff, and there just isn't very much in the pipeline, so sellers just rename the old to take advantage of that

My background is in plant breeding, so I know how expensive and time consuming cultivar development is, but I think there is a lot of room for improvement that just hasn't been explored.

Unintentional misnaming is probably more rampant than we know, especially because a lot of plants need to be flowered in order to properly key to species and that's not a common occurrence in the hobby, plus keying stuff out is often daunting, specialized work. Sometimes genera are in need of revision and good information about how many species there are and how to tell them apart just doesn't exist. Buce taxonomy is basically non-existent on the commercial side, but I don't know what state the scientific literature is in.