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August 1995
186
JOURNAL
OF THE
TREE
SOCIETY OF ZIMBABWE
P.O BOX 2128
HARARE
TREE LIFE
AUGUST 1995. No. 186
MASHONALAND CALENDAR
Saturday 5th August. Botanic Garden Walk at 10.45 a.m. for 11 a.m. We will
meet Tom in the public car park of the Gardens, where there will be someone
to guard the cars. This, the fourth, may be the last in the current Acacia
series. So far Tom has shown us those with prickles, scattered prickles,
the glandular group and a few of those with straight thorns.
Sunday 20th August. Members of the Wildlife Soc¬iety will be joining
us when we revisit Ngomakurira. This is a fascinating mountain and we should
look out for flowering aloes at the base of the hill, progressing to Eastern
districts species such as Oxyanthus speciosus, Rapanea melanophloeos and
Trema orientalis as well as Tricalysia ruandensis, which we recently found
at Domboshawa. On our last visit in June 1991, we recorded 119 species.
We plan to meet at 9 a.m. for an early-ish start because the days are shorter
and the evenings quite cold. The walk will be a leisurely one, stopping
to look at the rock paintings on the way. Wear walking shoes and bring a
portable lunch for a picnic on the summit. Directions: Take the Borrow¬dale
road out of Harare and continue for approx. 31km, through Domboshawa and
its satellite villages, watch out for pedestrians, cyclists and animals
along this stretch. Turn right into Sasa Road and about 1km down this dirt
road on the left is the car park where we shall meet.
Saturday 26th August. A look at Eucalyptus with Lyn Mullin at 2.30 p.m.
at the Forest Research Centre. Bring a x10 lens and Lyn's paper –
Eucalypts in Harare if you have them. To get there from town, turn left
off the Enterprise Road into Orange Grove Drive. Turn left 300/400 metres
along at the well sign posted entrance into the Forestry Commission grounds.
Once inside the Estate ignore the 2 turn offs to the left and continue straight
to the car park at the Forest Research Centre.
Tuesday 5th September. Botanic Garden Walk and back to our evening walks
with the return of longer and warmer evenings.
Sunday 17th September. M’torcha Mt. in Mutorashanga
Saturday 23rd September. Mark's walk
MATABELELAND CALENDAR
Sunday 6th August. Focus on Combretaceae in and around Bulawayo.
Sunday 3rd September. Depart from Girls’ College Car Park promptly
at 8.30 a.m.
Extra. Continuing with David Attenborough's The Private Life of Plants
on the 2nd Monday of each month at 7.45 for 8 p.m. at Girls' College.
The next, on Monday 13th August, will be episode 3 – Flowering.
Then episode 4 – Social Struggle
Episode 5 – Living Together
Episode 6 – Surviving
Friday 29th September to Sunday 1st October. IKOROS SAFARIS, West Nicholson.
Limited accom¬modation (12) therefore 1st come first served. Please
get details from Ian McCausland on Bulawayo 41946.
First week-end in November. In search of Oreobambos buchwaldii on Buchwa
Mountain.
Greystone Nature Preserve
Things continue despite the dry season. We are still cutting out the exotics
especially the Poplar. The main problem is the lack of workers (If anyone
can help in this respect please contact Rob Burrett at St. George's on
Tel: 724650 and leave a message if Rob is in class). Our next gathering
in the Preserve is 5th August at 4.00 p.m. We wish to review work done
to date and unveil new projects to come. Tree Society members will be
more than welcome.
BOTANIC GARDEN WALK: 1 JULY 1995
Acacias part 3. This month, Tom started with a dis¬tinct group, the
Glandular Acacias, so called because they have glands on their pods. All
have straight thorns and yellow spherical flower heads.
Four species occur in Zimbabwe: Acacia borleae, Acacia exuvialis, Acacia
nebrownii and Acacia permixta.
Acacia nebrownii was the first examined. In Zim¬babwe, it occurs only
in the south. It is a shrub, never really a tree and the flowers have
a distinct fragrance detectable from a distance. There are relatively
few pinnae (1 pair, rarely 2) and leaflets (3-5 pairs).
Acacia permixta. In this species, the young twigs are densely hairy (glabrous
or sometimes glandular in Acacia nebrownii) and there are usually many
more pinnae (1-4 pairs) and leaflets (5-10 pairs). Like Acacia nebrownii,
in Zimbabwe it is found only in the south. At the Tuli Circle, it appears
to intergrade with Acacia borleae.
Acacia borleae not only has glands on its pods, but also on its leaflets.
It is a shrub, lacking the hairs of Acacia permixta. This species is the
only Glandular Acacia to have been recorded from the northern division
of Zimbabwe, although it also is to be found in the southern and eastern
ones as well.
The last glandular species is Acacia exuvialis, which has been placed
in quotes because Tom has doubts that it is really Acacia exuvialis. Our
plant lacks the flaking bark of true Acacia exuvialis from the Transvaal
and also has brown twigs (dark grey in the Transvaal specimen). Whatever
its name, it occurs on rocky basalt slopes in Gonarezhou.
Having finished the glandular species, we looked at a number of other
straight-thorned species.
Acacia arenaria occurs in the west country, i.e. Matabeleland and in the
Beit Bridge area and, outside Zimbabwe, in Botswana. It is also a shrub,
often multi-stemmed; it possesses numerous small leaflets and has curved
pods.
The specimen of Acacia hebeclada in the Gardens had thorns that were distinctly
curved. It has greyish fine leaflets and looks a little like Acacia gerrardii
but differs in that the pods, remarkably, stand bolt upright.
Acacia robusta ssp. robusta has chunky branches, is somewhat similar to
Acacia karroo but has relatively few pinnae and broad pods. It is a true
climax species of Matabeleland and is never riverine. The branches are
distinctively marked with clusters of old leaf bases.
Adjacent to this is Acacia robusta ssp. clavigera, which Tom feels should
be treated as a separate species and not merely a different subspecies.
This is a truly riverine species, although sometimes finding its way into
Jesse bush. The pods are much less stout and are usually more curved.
Similar in leaf to robusta is Acacia grandicornuta, which in Zimbabwe
is confined to the SE. In many ways it is similar to Acacia karroo bur
lacks the reddish-brown underbark of that species.
Finally, we looked at two more familiar species. Acacia karroo has leaves
like robusta, black bark and rusty-red underbark on the younger branches.
The pod is sickle-shaped. It often occurs along rivers.
Acacia gerrardii has grey, velvety, slightly curved pods, a bit broader
then Acacia karroo. It may have a mixture of long end short thorns and
furthermore, these may be somewhat curved.
Once again, our thanks to Tom for a fascinating walk among the Acacia
beds.
Mark Hyde.
IVORY SAFARIS: 16-18 June 1995
Our weekend at Ivory Safaris was an extra that we worked into our calendar
for the second half of 1995. We did not advertise it as a botanical outing
as both of our experts on Northern Matabeleland were out of the country
– Jonathan Timberlake somewhere in England and Anthon Ellert at
a conference on succulents in Tucson, Arizona, where he is due to present
two papers on the Aloes of Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, for those who were sufficiently enthusi¬astic, there
was a bush walk on Saturday morning that had a strong botanical bias and
some fairly intensive investigation of the tress and shrubs in and around
the camp on our return from the walk.
In the absence of Jonathan and Anthon we co-opted local expertise in the
persons of Livingstone and Mike, tour guide and manager at Ivory Safaris
respectively and in desperation specimens were taken for identification
to Mike's wife in the kitchen. In this fash¬ion we were furnished
with either Shona or Ndebele names and then with the aid of Wild's Dictionary
we arrived at a botanical name. By these means we discovered amongst other
Markhamia obtusifolia (five pairs of leaflets as opposed to 3 in Markhamia
zanzibarica and a terminal leaflet of about the same size and shape as
the rest), (Ndebele- lpanda). Diospyros mespiliformis (which we should
have known albeit somewhat different from the Matopos variety –
Ndebele name Umdlawinzo).
We reacquainted ourselves with Amblygonocarpus andongensis, Erythrophleum
africanum, Ziziphus abyssinica and some of the common species of the Kalahari
Sand such as Baphia massaiensis and Friesodielsia•obovata (so like
Bridelia•mollis but for the recurving lateral veins). For the most
part however, our time was spent either on game drives or eating Ivory
Safaris excellent food.
It was a wonderful relaxing weekend and interesting to see the camp in
the dry season – so very different from the jungle we walked through
in February 1994.
Mike Burton was a splendid and generous host and his staff who were friendly
and considerate made us feel quite at home. I have no hesitation in re-awarding
five stars to Ivory Safaris despite the fact that we saw no wild dog.
I McCausland
PALM BLOCK AT THE NORTHERN END OF THE GREAT DYKE (ZIMBABWE)
At a combined meeting with the Aloe, Cactus, Cycad and Palm Society to
the 'Palm Block' on Sunday 18th June 1995 those present were fortunate
to be treated to a lecture by Frik Morris the palm ' fundi '. The area
is unique where the giant raffia palms extend their leaves to some 18
metres, the largest leaf in the world. The palms are multi-stemmed (hapaxanthic)
with the trunk less than 2½ metres. The long leaves overlap around
the stem and have a greyish silver appear¬ance, going to pink before
forming feathery green fronds. Described by one member, so aptly, as giant
fennel plants. Dwarfed by these long swaying fruits with their filigree
fluttering leaflets gave a feeling of having gone back aeons in time.
The Raphia palms (Raphia farinifera) had created their own microclimate
and were growing in profusion along the streams, beyond where the stream
erupted as a water spring, the palm growth stopped. According to Coates
Palgrave the palm is essentially of swamp areas. The soil was black, fibrous,
and rich in organic matter, humus and smelt acid. Growing in the area
were plants associated with Nyanga and high rainfall Cussonia spicata,
bracken and a bramble species that might have been rigidus because it
was stiff and scratchy. The altitude was not the factor because this locality
was 1240 metres. Numerous seedlings had germinated and were usually caught
up and protected by decaying pieces of dead fruiting body or rachis. Other
plants had propagated from stolons as suggested by the observation that
these young plants ware not perpendicular but angled towards a parent
plant growing in close proximity (7-8 metres away).
The fruiting bodies were huge inflorescences that were grey and scale-like
hanging some 15 metres from the ground and probably some 2-3 metres in
length. These resembled giant 'cones' and hung below the plumes of arching
leaves. The difference between the two species of Raphia is that the flower
heads of Raphia farinifera start erect and later bend over and hang down
below the leaves. Raphia australis is of a more southern locality as its
name indicates, occurring in Mozambique and Northern Zululand. The flower
head is kept vertically above the crown of leaves.
Erik Morris queried whether this was significant enough to create two
separate species. The Raphia australis is referred to as the Kosi Bay
species and at the turn of the century a magistrate planted a grove of
these trees in the Mtunzini area. The grove by the Railway station, which
was the site of the original planting, has been declared a scientific
monument. Where the palm occurs in Mozambique the giant petioles are buoyant
and are made into outriggers for their canoes.
Raphia farinifera also occurs in Madagascar, the Horse Shoe Block, in
the Vumba and Masvingo. It could have been brought by the Arabs or from
Madagascar. More likely the Arabs, not because they are blamed for the
slave trade but because the palm is prized in their poetry and culture.
The fruits are eaten by a vulturine eagle that does not occur in Madagascar
and could not have been responsible for the distribution. The large size
of the seed would render it physically impossible unless it was the famed
bird of ribald student songs. The bird is the palm-nut vulture (Gypohierax
angolensis) resembling a small hooded vulture. It is not found in Zimbabwe
but along coastal forests and large rivers and northwest of the Okavango
Delta but always in the vicinity of Raffia palms. The single seed is large,
about 10 cm long, has conspicuous overlapping scales, very shiny and golden
brown. The palm vulture would tear off the woody scales with its talons
to get out the white coconut like meat beneath. The inflorescences take
2 - 3 years to develop.
The palms are flowering seed bearing plants, Angiosperms and are monocotyledon,
which means the floral parts are arranged in threes and the leaves, are
linear with parallel venation. The male and female flower parts are not
in the same flower but found in separate flowers and are referred to as
monoecious (one house). The sepals and petals are tubular and the ovary
oval and single chambered (monocarpic).
The inflorescences formed tight overlapping scales and it has been said
the male and female flowers occurred on the same inflorescence with the
male flowers at the bottom of the giant reproductive struc¬ture. Observation
did not suggest this because there were numerous male-type dried structures
and scales on the ground. The ripe swollen seeds could be seen in profusion
on their huge cone-like structures hanging from the palms. It is possible
each inflorescence is either male or female on the same tree but matures
at different times. A newish tightly arranged giant grey reproductive
body was seen to have some of its scale-like parts open. The mature reproductive
bodies were not tightly closed and the seeds hung protruding from the
scales. How fertilisation occurred is not known, it could be wind, insect,
e.g. small beetles or even by bats.
Those massive palms are short lived and after about 25-35 years they flower,
set fruit and the tree starts to whither and dies. When a high wind catches
the giant superstructure it crashes to the ground scattering seed over
a fairly wide area but providing a tiny micro¬climate in the fibrous
leaves and scale like parts of the giant inflorescences. These provide
protection and a mini greenhouse.
With the Ilala palm or Northern Ilala palm Hyphaene petersiana (Hyphaene
benguellensis) fruits are produced in large quantities up to 2000 and
take 2 years to develop and 2 years to fall. The fruits are eaten by elephants
and baboons but contrary to the story told to tourists the fruit does
not have to pass through the gut of an elephant to germinate. These germinate
any¬where there is moisture and warmth. The myth about the elephant's
gut is not entirely unfounded because in the Zambezi Valley the elephants
destroy trees which when fallen trap grass and elephants' dung forming
a microclimate or miniature greenhouse.
In the Raffia palms the germination is adjacent with a brittle little
radicle and a yellow white shoot comes off the hypocotyl and turns green
and is called the eophyll.
Palms hate being dug up and transplanted because the roots should not
be disturbed. If purchased from a nursery the bottom of the black plastic
bag should be cut away and slits cut in the sides of the bag. Leaves should
not be cut back to prevent water loss by transpiration and the young palms
should be watered but not over watered. Palms should be planted in large
holes 2 metres by 2 metres which are filled with rich compost and mixed
with bark. Germination is enhanced by the ecosystem at Palm Block, where
leaf mould and humus was abundant. Germination and growth is promoted
by using liquid seaweed and also by preparations containing magnesium,
nickel and chrome in soluble form for the Raffia palms.
Palms like the Phoenix palm or wild date palm Phoenix reclinata, which
has a reclining habit grows in swamps and produces breathing roots like
man¬groves called pneumatophores. These palms can grow in a wide range
of conditions and are easy to grow and propagate making excellent garden
plants. The fruit bats feed on the yellow overripe fruit dropping seeds
which germinate on flower beds or anywhere the soil is rich and moist.
Zimbabwe has four indigenous genera of palms, the Borassus palm, two species
of Hyphaene, Raphia and the Phoenix palms.
Like the fan-like Hyphaene, the Borassus palm has a very straight stem
or bole but with a characteristic swelling midway. In the Tzaneen area
it was believed the swelling of a large Borassus palm had entrapped the
spirit of Magoeba when he was murdered. The belief that an ancestral spirit
can linger in a tree is not uncommon in Africa. Chiefs have been laid
to rest beneath the mighty baobabs. In Mozambique the boles of the Borassus
palm are fashioned into dugout canoes. Borassus palms occur at Renco Mine.
The uses of palms are fascinating. The hard wooden insect resistant rachis
of the raffia palm makes beautiful furniture and probably roof tiles.
In East Africa thatching is done by taking the leaflets of the coconut
palm and knotting them next to each other on stick of half a metre. The
sticks are laid like tiles on the roofs of coral brick houses and referred
to as 'makuti’.
The sap of palms is made into intoxicating wine but the cutting of the
crown eventually kills the palm. The crowns of young palms can be eaten
as a delicacy or aphrodisiac.
The leaves can be made into raffia, fashioned into rope or woven into
baskets. The Hyphaene produce an inferior vegetable ivory used in carvings
and buttons. The sap bled from the Hyphaene is slightly intoxicating and
a tree can yield up to 70 litres. The liquid can be distilled to make
a very powerful brew. The species have massive tap roots acting as an
anchor for the height and to locate water in the dry areas of the Zambezi
Valley. The long tap root makes transplanting difficult. When germination
occurs adventitious roots form rapidly from the dying hypocotyl to hold
the seedling.
Another interesting feature about palms is the assoc¬iation of palms
and the palm swift Cypsiurus parvus. The very slender streamlined little
swift with very long tail feathers can be seen whirling and calling amongst
the fan palms of Harare and in particular along Julius Nyerere. The long
tail feathers are neatly kept closed, looking pointed, allowing easy access
into the dead palm fronds. A characteristic of swifts is that they have
large salivary glands. The palm swift uses saliva to glue feathers to
the palm fronds for a nest. The two eggs are glued to the fronds with
saliva. It is thought there is no need for the eggs to be turned because
of the rustling and motion of the dead palm leaves. The long leg claws
of the chick enable it to cling on to the frond and hang there safely
above the bustling city traffic beneath. Swifts have large forward facing
feet with big toes and have great difficulty in getting airborne once
on the ground.
Mary Toet
FORESTS IN A WARMER WORLD
As climatologists become increasingly convinced that the predicted global
warming due to 'greenhouse gas' emissions has begun, attention is turning
to its likely effects on biological systems, including forests.
At the CSIRO Division of Forestry in Canberra, Australia, Dr Miko Kirschbaum
is using mathematical modelling techniques to investigate how forest growth
and productivity in Australia could change. He is examining the direct
impact of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on tree growth,
as well as the effects of high temperatures and changes in rainfall.
If other things remained equal, the added carbon dioxide should increase
photosynthesis in forests by 0.1-0.3% a year; he says. However, the limited
supply of available nutrients in the soil will reduce this figure. And
increased tree growth resulting in more carbon returning to the soil in
litter could further reduce the nutrient supply, as the carbon will immobilise
nutrients. "My work is trying to understand those feed-backs more
quantitatively", he says.
Kirschbaum has been appointed 'lead author' of two chapters of this year's
report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), giving
him a major role in global climate-change assessment. The panel's first
report, in 1990, was a milestone in global recognition of climate issues
and the 1995 publication will have similar significance. One of Kirschbaum’s
chapters will deal with the impact of climate change on forests, the other
with the general impact on terrestrial ecosystems. He describes "trying
to synthesize the best understanding of what climate change will mean
for the world's forests” as an interesting task. "There are
no clear, unambiguous outcomes – there will need to be a lot of
further work to fully understand the impact."
According to Kirschbaum, scientists now have a good understanding of the
overall global warming response to the greenhouse gas build-up. But how
temp¬eratures will change in different regions remains unclear and
effects on rainfall are even more uncertain.
For Australia, he thinks the latest estimates from the CSIRO Division
of Atmospheric Research, issued in October 1994, present the most likely
scenario. The predicted warming in southern coastal regions is 0.5-2.0°C
by 2030 and 1-5°C by 2070. The temperature rise might be slightly
greater away from the coast.
This means, Kirschbaum calculates, that in terms of temperature the locations
where conditions are optimal for each species are moving south at the
rate of something like 5km a year. He says many Pinus radiata plantations
are in regions where temp¬eratures are already at the upper edge of
the suitable range, so further warming could have an impact quite soon.
He expects trees will show varying responses to climate change, "Some
species can grow in signifi¬cantly warmer conditions than where they
naturally occur, others are much less tolerant. Pests and pathogens are
likely to be agents that make some species unsuccessful under warmer conditions".
(Adapted from ONWOOD No. 8, March 1995, a quarterly publication of the
CSIRO Divisions of Forestry and Forest Products, Canberra and Melbourne,
Australia)
Lyn Mullin
BOTANICAL PRONUNCIATION – ELEVEN ROUGH GUIDES
Botanical pronunciation has long been a thorny issue, possibly even more
so than its sister controversy, that of common names. There are plenty
of guides and rules and yet it is clear that few people pronounce the
words as recommended, and if they did they would be regarded rather oddly,
even in respected academic circles.
The guiding principle in accumulating the recom¬mendations below,
has been to reflect how most people, particularly botanists, do actually
pronounce botanical names and other words, rather than how they should.
I have listened with interest to botanists over the years, particularly
to the more respected 'older generation' whose proper way of doing things
is in danger of dying out with them as they are replaced by Philistine
plant scientists or whatever. Despite the classical education that many
of my informants had, they still do not follow the stricter rules that
are still laid down. As Professor Stearn said "Botanical Latin is
a modern romance language in its own right" and the present contribution
is the result of observing the pronunciation of this living language.
Yet it is still not just a matter of pronouncing the words as you like,
or as if they were English; for the botanical neophyte (as well as the
occasional gerontophyte). Practical pronunciation lies between pretentious
classical usage, and gardeners' gaffs; few would disagree about these
extremes, but there is of course some variation of view about any middle
path. There will always be, and always should be, those who categorically
disagree with these or any guides, for that is what they are – not
rules.
The pronunciations given do not use dictionary conventions, except for
a single inverted comma after a stressed syllable; read them as English
words. In the case of foreign names, this is a blunt but functional instrument.
The guides below were first produced some years ago, in response to student
requests for a one-sheet simple handout, which is of course impossible.
NOTE: guides below are Traditional English pronun¬ciation, unless
indicated as: "RA" which means Reformed (or Restored) Academic,
and is not generally used.
G’s and c’s are soft before an "e" (or the diphthongs
containing "e", "ae", "oe" or "ei")
or an "i" (or "y"), otherwise hard (before "a",
"o", '"u", "c" etc ); the mnemonic "A
gungy ginger gargoyle" may help”. Thus flaccid is pronounced
flak'sid as in accent, and fungus (fun'gus) becomes fungi (funj 'eye,
or loss preferred funj'y, though fung'eye/y are often heard) in the plural.
As does coccus (kock'us) becomes cocci (kock's-eye, or kocks'y). Hence:
Scutellaria (Skoot'-) and Scilla (Sill'a) but Scirpus is Sker'pus. "C"
before an "e" or "i" as "tsh" is a Church
Latin affectation (Ceratodon as Tshorat'-odon). "G" or "c"
from a Greek root is tradi¬tionally hard as in Gymnogyne (Gim'no-guy'ny).
(RA: g’s and c’s always hard.
"Ch" and "th” are usually "k" or "th"
as in lichen (lie'-ken) and Schizostylis (Skit'so-sty'lis), but Shy'zo-
is acceptable, and Shy-zee'a for Schizaea, Shy'nus for Schinus (RA: (Skeen'us),
Shoe'nus for Schoenus (RA: Skoy'nus) etc., are in practice usual. But
Thea (Tay'a), Thymus (Tie'mus), etc, have "th" as "t".
"Gn" at the beginning of a word has a silent "G",
as in Gnetum (Naet'um), but in the middle it is pronounced, as in Sphagnum
(Sfag'num). Similarly "Ps" as in pseudocapsicum (syewd'o-cap'sikum)
and "Gm" in Gmelina (Mol-eye'na) and Regmatodon (Reg-mat'odon).
Similarly "Tm", Pt" (Tmesipteris (Mesip'-teris), and also
"Pn", "Mn", "Ts", etc. Many exceptions include:
Rhizomnium, Hypopterygium, where the link vowel is not accented (Rie'zo-nie'um,
Hie'po-teri'gium).
J’s may be pronounced as a consonant - "y" before ultimate
vowel, as in Thuja (Thoo'ya) and Buddleja (Bud'-leya), but usually not
otherwise as in Juniperus, Juncus, Juglans, Leucojum, etc.
The vowels may be pronounced (RA) as in the mnemonic "Pa let me off
too" but this is complicated by long and short vowel sounds, which
depend on grammar (see Stearn 1992). Fortunately, nobody in England will
understand you, especially if you pronounce "v" as w’s,
and "j" as y’s. It is, however, closer to the botanical
Latin used on the Continent. Common sense helps, e.g. "y" in
Hymenophyllum (Hie'men-off'illum). Pinus is invariably politely pro¬nounced
Pie'nus.
The final "e" should always be pronounced, a bit like a short
i, as in Cardamine (Cardam'iny); exceptions usually include Helleborine
and Aloë, which can sound odd unless pronounced like their Anglicized
forms. Aloë even has the final "e" with two little dots
over it to indicate that it should be pronounced separately (Alo'-y with
a long "o"), but those who do so risk raised eyebrows.
Double-"i" endings tend to get pronounced as in smithii (smith'y-eye).
Diphthongs/monophthongs: examples: Cheiranthus (kie'-), Coelogyne (Seel'o-),
Euphorbia (You’-), Daucus (Dor'kus), Aegilops (Eej'-), Coix (Koyks).
For RA see Stearn 1992).
Not diphthongs: when the above paired vowels are reversed, or when the
letters come together from different word parts, e.g. Elodea (E'llo-dear),
lanceolate (-ee-oh), isoetes (should really be written isoëtes: Eye'so-eet'ees),
Aloina (A'lo-ee'na), aloides (strictly al'-o-eye'deez with a short "o",
but usually al-oy'deez). Ranunculaceae (-ay'si-ae'), or practically and
sensibly condensed as in Andreaeaceae (An'dri-ay'si, with short "i"s).
Joking aside, Cotoneaster is not pronounced "Cotton-Easter".
Stressing syllables: various (conflicting) rules:
a) If the name is derived from two or more parts, then it should be pronounced
accordingly, e.g. Tetraphis (Tet'ra-fiss), angustifolium (angus'ti-fol'ium);
do not accent the link vowels. Common exceptions include: Ctenopteris,
Xjphopteris (Tsnop'-/Ziffop' -teris), polytrichum, Orthotrichum (accent
on link-"o" and-"y"), see rule (b) below. The worst
I have heard in all seriousness is Dizz'y-Goth'ica for Dizygotheca (normally
Die'-zie'go-thee'ka, with a soft "th"), owing to slavish application
of rule (b):
b) Accent first syllable of two, middle of three, third from end of four
or five; but this is a crude rule and depends on long or short vowels.
(E.g. accent penultimate if long, if not then anti-penultimate) and grammar
which would not be known by most people, euphony in English usually wins.
All these guides are usually overridden in the case of scientific names
derived from proper names, which should be pronounced as closely as reasonable
to their native pronunciation, as in Gesneria (Gez'-), Schefflera (Sheff'-).
Camellia (Kamell'ia from the Moravian Kamel, Latinized to Cammellus),
Buxbaumia (-bow'- as in house), Colchicum (Kol'chikum, from Colchis),
Matthiola (Mat'iola from the Italian Mattioli) and warscewiczii (a close
try is Varsh'evich'y-eye, from Polish).
The problem is knowing how they were pronounced, which is often debatable
anyway.
The Australian genus Austrobailya would be "Ost'-" if the prefix
referred to the country, which it doesn't, so it should be pronounced
"Orst'-". Exceptions usually include: Menziezia (Men-zeez'ia,
from Scottish "Min(g)'iz), Choisya and Magnolia (Choy'zia and Mag-noh'lia
from the (Swiss) French "Shwus-ee" and "Manyol").
Fuchsia (Few'-sha, an English delicacy from German "Fooks")
Mahonia (Ma-hoh'nia, from American Irish "McMar'n"), and even
Rafflesia (Raff-leez'ia, from English "Raf f ‘Is").
Adapted from Sean Edwards' article in BSBI News with thanks to both.
Committe Members
CONTACT TEL. NUMBERS
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