I have the following doubt. In many internet sites, I see euphorbia trigona given as synonym of euphorbia hermentiana (e.g. http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Euphorbiaceae/Euphorbia_trigona.html). However, I see that the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) does not present them as synonyms (there are two independent entries for these species). I recently bought a relatively big one (announced as euphorbia hermentiana) and another very small one (with no identification) - see pictures. I would love to know what I really bought lolll Can anyone help?
I don't have an opinion on whether E. trigona should be treated as a synonym of E. hermentiana. Not being a succulent euphorbia enthusiast that's news to me, but I would certainly not rule it out. But you have a misapprehension about IPNI. It is simply a database of all published plant names and makes no claim to arbitrate on which species names should be regarded as synonyms. I should qualify that by saying it does not arbitrate on heterotypic synonyms, where the names have different type specimens. It does provide cross-references between homotypic synonyms, where different names (or ranks) have been based on the same specimen. This distinction can be a bit difficult for a non-taxonomist to get their head around, I realise!
Thanx! I just ran accross the IPNI page one of these days and check it a lot now. It was quite helpful to know this information you give :-) PS. The (latin?) names of the geographical areas in the IPNI are a bit odd though... Ind. Or., Malaya, N. Granat.... (N. Granat I read it is Colombia, but the others I can just guess). Is there a key somewhere?
You need to understand that IPNI incorporates all the entries from the original Index Kewensis, published originally about 1886 (from memory!) with periodic supplements since then, which at first gave very abbreviated references to place of publication, and Latin abbreviations for broad geographic origin and nomenclatural comments. So Ind. Or. means East Indies (approximately Indonesia though I'm not sure what they regarded as the limits of East Indies then). I think another very common one is Am. Bor. for North America. Stearn's Botanical Latin has a few pages of the tradional Latin names for countries and regions as well as a list of other abbreviations at the back.
Thanx! You know of any other similar (trustworthy) database that can help one make e.g. tags for our collection of plants, with name of plant, author and origin?
