Notice Regarding Plant Name Changes

This page last modified on 30 March, 2006

Scientific plant names used in this photo-key have, with two exceptions, been based on names published in the Checklist of the Vascular Plants of San Diego County, 3rd edition by Michael Simpson and Jon Rebman, SDSU Herbarium Press, 2001.

As I have noted in highlighted footnotes to Family links in the indexes of this photo-key, I have been using revised Family names for species formerly classified in the Scrophulariaceae and Liliaceae families based on two major articles published in Fremontia (Journal of the California Native Plant Society) issue of April 2002. My Liliaceae names are similar to those used in the 3rd edition of the Checklist, but depart almost completely from those in the Checklist for Scrophulariaceae.

A new 4th edition of the Checklist has just been released, and the substantially changed names contained therein represent the current best consensus of professional botanists regarding Family names that come closest to indicating the genetic origins of plants known to grow in San Diego County.  The website of the Plant Atlas Project of the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) has just posted a document Name Changes in the Plant Atlas Database listing the changes that have been made. (Because the direct website link to that document suggests possible intent to change the link within the Plant Atlas website, I prefer to have readers get the current link from the Plant Atlas website rather than here.)

My intention is to bring this photo-key into conformance with the names in the Checklist 4th edition as soon as possible.  If you have followed my Recent Changes  page, you'll know that I've recently been concentrating on bringing up to date the presentation of several of the major wildflower families for which my early identification efforts were inaccurate at best. That project has progressed to the point where it seems best to "complete" that work - at least to the extent practical with a few new species being represented in photos taken in the first half of 2006. The nomenclature changes will then have to take place in small-ish stages (to avoid breaking the links within this website as much as possible).  As usual, I'll place brief summaries of progress on the name-change project in the Recent Changes  page.

-- Ken Bowles