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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Eclecticology (talk | contribs) at 06:19, 7 September 2002 (welcome Henriette). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

I'm not a biologist, but that's probably the case with most Wikipedians. From looking at a lot of biological and taxonomic sites it seems that biologists are just as confused as the rest of us about the taxa.

In redrafting this article I was hoping to raise a number of issues that could be applicable to all biological articles. Using Solanales to initiate this approach is a completely arbitrary decision.

One issue that I'm not wanting to address at this point is that of English vs. Latin names. That topic has already had considerable discussion elsewhere. Nevertheles, the comments below work better with the Latin names.

Format convention
A convention is an agreement to all do things the same way, based on two or more viable alternatives. Nothing implicit to these alternatives makes one more right than an other. That some countries drive on the left side of the road, and that other countries drive on the right is a matter of convention. Experience has shown that either system is viable. (The proposal by the Rhinoceros Party of Canada that would have promoted a gradual change whereby in the first phase only large trucks would have changed sides could have encountered some difficulties.)

A format convention will insure that all related articles will look the same; that is a benefit to the reader looking for particular information. The details that I have proposed (including the headings) are subject to change with the understanding that if more people use this model that will have the effect of acceptance. The proposed headings are

  • Placement - This places the taxon in a larger context.
  • Synonyms and common names - This allows us to cope with some problematic issues.
  • Reference - "citing one's sources" - more about this below.
  • Text - Whatever you want to say; this could be further subdivided.
  • Children - At least the list of taxa in the level immediately below, but there could be more.
  • Problems - Here we can note deviations from what the writer has accepted as a standard. In Solanales I show two families that my source did not show as belonging here. One it placed in another order; the other was not even in its data base.

References
In a world where authorities differ significantly this becomes more important than ever. For an online encyclopaedia a printed book is not the best information source. Adequate texts are expensive and not easily accessible to everybody. If they are in libraries they are usually in reference sections and can't be taken out. Furthermore, not all libraries will have the same reference. Thus, the first criterion for a general taxonomic reference is that it be on-line.

My current preference and the one that I propose for this kind of reference is for the Integrated Taxonomic Reference System or simply ITIS at http://www.itis.usda.gov/ I was previously using the Taxonomy Browser of the National Center for Biotechnology Information or NCBI at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/ which also has useful genomic information about taxa; however, the simple fact that it does not show usual "class-order-family-genus" terminology make it more difficult to use. Are there any other candidate sites? Sometimes other sites may be appropriate, or may be used to supplement the information.

The important point is still to cite your source. The date when you checked the source should also be there. The information is constantly changing. When you see an old date here you can always go to the source, and if it hasn't changed, it will be enough to simply alter the date in the article.

-- Eclecticology, Wednesday, May 29, 2002

One source I often use for angiosperms is the Delta database. This is findable with a web search for "families flowering plants" and the genus or family name, as the pages all begin with "The Families of Flowering Plants". Sometimes, unfortunately, the website is inaccessible. -phma

Thanks, I've cross-referenced to that on a couple occasions. Of course, its drawback is that it is limited to flowering plants. See http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/angio/ --Eclecticology

ITIS is quite nice, yes, but it's seems to be limited to North-American native species. That's rather limiting to Europeans... like me. Anyhow, I'll update medicinal plants until I run out of steam, and link the lot to herb, too. Another problem with Delta is that it only goes to genus level, no species. I'll be using multi-language online databases that I can trust. For instance, this site: http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/welcome.html is quite nice. --Henriette, Sept 6, 2002

Yes, that is one of their shorcomings. They do have ambitious plans, and in time may even have the resources to pull that off. The Species 2000 project is more a world-wide project to which ITIS and 17 others contribute. The source that you mentioned could be good, but you may have noticed a slight tendency toward ethnocentrism among anglophones such that a Swedish language site may not have great appeal to them. Eclecticology 06:19 Sep 7, 2002 (UTC)
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