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Topic: Strange names appearing in Occurrences panel

I'm not sure when this started happening (may have always been the case and I'd not noticed), but recently I've noticed some strange Common Names appearing the in the Occurrences Panel of Recorder:
e.g. 'Keck' for Anthriscus sylvestris and 'Birdseye Speedwell' for Veronica chamaedrys

I always presumed the Occurrences panel displayed the current Sci/Common names for each species irrespective of the list used to enter the record - this is obviously not the case because I've found some entries listed as Cow Parsley (presumably a different list was chosen to enter these)

In the species Dictionary Keck (Anthriscus sylvestris) appear to be the entry on the Rec 3.3 list - despite it never being the common name IN Rec 3.3! The Birdseye Speedwell also appears to originate on the Rec 3.3 list

To add confusion, searching 'Keck' in Preferred Taxa returns Heracleum sphondylium (off Rec 3.3 list) - but doesn't find Anthriscus sylvestris even when searching Unrestricted !!!!!!

Luckily this does not appear to affect reports if outputting the 'preferred' name, but is confusing for non-taxonomists!

Searching for Keck in the NBNAtlas only returns Heracleum, and doesn't even list 'Keck' in the list of common names for Anthriscus - I'm wondering if there is a problem with the species dictionary in my copy of Recorder - on dictionary 4Q

Note: Wikipedia does include 'Keck' as a regional name for Anthriscus

Attached is a screen capture of the relevant bits of the Rec 3.3 list

Craig Slawson
SER

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Craig Slawson
Staffordshire Ecological Record

2 (edited by charliebarnes 04-12-2019 12:48:46)

Re: Strange names appearing in Occurrences panel

We're on 4K still and don't appear to have this (attached).

Nice to see Keck in the dictionary - I know it as a Lincolnshire word for Cow parsley and Hogweed - but I had nothing to do with this, honest!

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Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership

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Re: Strange names appearing in Occurrences panel

Hi

KECK is an R3.3 common name on the R6 Recorder 3.3 dictionary along with Hogweed and Cow Parsnip. 

The UKSI doesn't have preferred comon names so R6 has to work them out based on the Taxon_List_Item key.

1. If there is an English  common named associated with a preferred TLI key for a scientific name then this is the common name allocated. It does mean that in Occurrences you will see the common name for the list used for input if there was an associated common name for the TLI key used.  This is done so that those who just use one list for input, see the common name that goes with the list, not something from another list. 

2. If there is no english  common name associated with a preferred TLI key, then R6 attempts to get one from another list. The lists are search in turn until a common name is found for the Taxon Version Key. Priority being given to the 'Preferred Lists', then to those which are better constructed/maintained. 

3. Synonyms (anything in the TLI table where the TLI key and  Preferred_Name   are different) get the Common Name of their preferred name.


A possible cause for confusion is that where there are mutiple possible common names within a list (ie Keck, Cow Parsnip and Hogweed) then the choice is currently made at random, so it can vary from one dictionary update to another. I don't think this occurs very often, but I will look at the possibility of making the choice more consistent from one dictionary update to another - possibly by always choosing the lowest key of the lowest name alphabetically.

If we cut out step 1 then the common names will be more consistent - ie a scientific name will only have one possibly common name, but it will upset some users. Perhaps this requires discussion on  the Trello board.

Mike Weideli

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Re: Strange names appearing in Occurrences panel

Hi Mike,

I think to some extent you are missing the point! Keck is coming out as the common name for Anthriscus sylvestris, normally "Cow PARSLEY", although it is also a regional name for Heracleum (Cow PARSNIP), but despite it appearing in the Recorder 3.3 list for Anthriscus on my computer it doesn't appear when using the search facility, so there appears to be some indexing issue - PLUS, as Charlie points out his copy of Recorder on dictionary 4K is displaying Cow Parsley correctly - what has changed!

Craig Slawson
Staffordshire Ecological Record

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Re: Strange names appearing in Occurrences panel

Hi

There are two separate issues here

1. The allocation of the common name Keck to Anthriscus sylvestris is just down to the fact that it is within the Recorder 3 list one of the valid common names for this species. The choice of which one to use is made at random as there is nothing in the UKSI to say which common name is the preferred one. The common name can, therefore, change from one dictionary upgade to another. This is somthing which probably needs fixing so that a more consistent choice is made. There are 6000 species where there are mutiple common names available. 

2. Keck is  a  valid common name in the R3.3 dictionary, but the preferred TLI key within the list uses the same TVK as the one used for Keck on Heracleum (NBNSYS0000168127), which creates an anomally  linking  Heracleum and  Anthriscus in error. The allocation of Preferred Taxa indicator recognises this as an anomally and  makes Keck for Anthriscus (TLIK NBNSYS0000120894) unavailable for data input, which in turn stops it appearing in searches.  Ideally, this needs fixing in the UKSI.

Mike Weideli

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Re: Strange names appearing in Occurrences panel

I have raised issue 2 with Chris Raper, so that the dictionary can be fixed.

Mike Weideli