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Forum → UK Species Inventory / Dictionary → Narcissus
The common name for Narcissus on the Vasc. Plants list is "Garden Daffodil" - shouldn't this be "Unident. narcissus" or just "Narcissus".
Or maybe there should be two entries for Narcissus "unident." & "garden daff"?
I agree Charlie, Narcissus clearly includes N. pseudonarcissus subsp. pseudonarcissus, which although sometimes found in gardens is not really a garden daffodil.
There is a wider point though. Giving Narcissus the common name Narcissus conveys no additional information (and capitalising the name seems wrong in many cases also), when producing reports I routinely modify the common names of any records at genus (or higher) level to e.g. A narcissus. This tells us that the species is unknown. Giving the common name as Narcissus (capitalised) implies, to me, that the record is of the genus as a whole, not an unidentified member of that genus.
Whenever we raise these issues we are told that such things are in the control of the custodians of the lists. I wonder therefore if it might be possible to create and issue a simple set of guidelines to those custodians agreed by the users and the custodians and specifying how such issues should be presented in the lists.
I know some people might not like it, but it might at least enable the taxon dictionary to be a bit more consistent.
I agree that like the other dictionary issues this does need looking at urgently. but at least with Common names you can change them if you wish.
Mike
How do I change the common name ?. Can I add one if there isn't one ?
Dave
You can add and change common names. The Common name is in each Dictionary list, so to cover all options you would need to add/change the entry in all the lists you use, but if you just use one list and only want to change a few then you can do this in Recorder fairly easily. If you want to make multiple changes across all dictionaries then it could be done with a batch update, but I don't know of one which does this at the moment.
One option is to implement the additional field in the report wizard (see http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=1745). This additional field will normally get the common name from the preferred dictionary so by changing the common name in the preferred dictionary and using this new field in the Report Wizard the report output will give your version of the common name.
To add or change the common name in the preferred dictionary open 'Edit Taxon Details' from the Dictionary menu. Find the preferred list and the taxon you wish to change. Click on Edit and choose the tab 'taxon names'. Enter the name you want under taxon name and make sure you untick the top tick box and tick the box next to the name you want to use. Save the change. The Taxon Name Index will need rebuilding and your common name will then be output as the Recommended taxon Name. There are some XML reports in System/Information which may help by providing various details about the taxon and dictionaries used in your system
Mike
I have given this a go and it seems to work in most cases I have tried, but not in one or two ?
Dave
Let me know which ones don't work and I will investigate. One point though is that the preferred list doesn't always provide the recommended taxon name. I am not always sure why this is. Sometimes it is because of a change in taxonomy and the new name is in the list of additional names, or some may possibly be dictionary errors. The XML Report which lists the taxon used in the system has a column 'Recommended_List' (the end column) and this is the list you will need to change.
Mike
Sorry for the length of time to respond. Dare I say that I have been concentrating on more urgent Dictionary tasks?
I appreciate that the situation is not ideal. "Garden Daffodil" appears (only) on the Recorder 3.3 list, mapped to the genus Narcissus. If you want to record "Garden Daffodil" then this mapping is correct - it has really to be a mapping to genus. However, looked at the other way round, "Garden Daffodil" is not an appropriate name for the genus Narcissus.
Daffodil is mapped to both Narcissus pseudonarcissus and Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. pseudonarcissus.
What I have done is to add 'daffodils' (to the List of Additional Names) and mapped it in the nameserver to Narcissus. to as the recommended common name. "Garden Daffodil" has to be mapped to something and so this stays mapped to Narcissus, but as a 'non-recommended' name.
Regards,
Charles Hussey
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