Thanks Lawrence – re the Towerlands plant – you asked why is this not retusa? Did I answer your question? Actually I think it is H. retusa but in the ‘turgida’ context. Any separation of turgida and retusa below spcies rank is arbitrary. I will post an album of an odd population of H. retusa to include a Towerlands plant. But I do not think much progress will follow. People will trot out names but without logic to support any identification.
Bruce, you wrote “By population this is nomenclaturally probably H. retusa subsp turgida ex Towerlands and according to Lawrence perhaps cf retusa. But to rationalise – this is a small plant with abundant small white idioblasts, there is reticulate translucence, marginal spination and it is clumping. None of those characters appear in what would be H. retusa subsp retusa. My arguments that this characterization does not work all of the time and not consistently enough.”
Next question – what’s the difference between ‘subspecies’ and ‘variety’?
Well, this comment made it. Have a new notebook? Internet access any better?
Thanks Lawrence – re the Towerlands plant – you asked why is this not retusa? Did I answer your question? Actually I think it is H. retusa but in the ‘turgida’ context. Any separation of turgida and retusa below spcies rank is arbitrary. I will post an album of an odd population of H. retusa to include a Towerlands plant. But I do not think much progress will follow. People will trot out names but without logic to support any identification.
Bruce, you wrote “By population this is nomenclaturally probably H. retusa subsp turgida ex Towerlands and according to Lawrence perhaps cf retusa. But to rationalise – this is a small plant with abundant small white idioblasts, there is reticulate translucence, marginal spination and it is clumping. None of those characters appear in what would be H. retusa subsp retusa. My arguments that this characterization does not work all of the time and not consistently enough.”
Next question – what’s the difference between ‘subspecies’ and ‘variety’?
Congratulations! Now try and stimulate some discussion.
I did post acomment last time I visited the site and now I see that it was not posted!
It will be interesting to see if I can post (paste) here to initiate discussion.