Mexico March 2014 update
As some of you may have already noticed I have now completed my first (and likely only) tidy up of the Cactus Trip Diaries – correcting typos and adding extra text and images. It was a highly enjoyable but very time consuming process, completed after I had finished building my presentations for this trip and while I was already showing off what we saw this last winter to a number of BCSS branches in the UK.
The challenge as always remains to use relevant names for the plants. I aim to use names as used in the first edition of the New Cactus Lexicon, but am aware of a numbers of quite dramatic changes that have been the result of the publication of scientific research, particularly DNA studies. The many changes seem to be delaying the preparation and publishing of a second edition of the New Cactus Lexicon, as in addition to name changes, a steady stream of new names for newly discovered cacti have been presented.
I am not quite sure how useful my strategy of using New Cactus Lexicon taxonomy in talks really is when aiming for effective communication with the audience, as many still appear to hang on to Backeberg names from 1966. People just do seem to like change and look for stability in these matters.
I hope that you will enjoy these updates that start from 7 March 2014 and that you’ll join us again around mid October 2014 when we are planning to go back, this time to see Ariocarpus in flower, while the locations found on this last trip are still fresh in our mind.
The Cactus Trip Diaries 