Talk:Hormidium

Synonymy
As I found this page, it was re-directed to Encyclia, which claimed that Hormidium was a synonym for Encyclia. According the Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Hormidium is a synonym for Prosthechea. Also according to Kew, Hormidium serpens (Lindl.) Benth. & Hook.f. (1883) and Hormidium sophronitis (Lindl. & Rchb.f.) Benth. & Hook.f. (1883) are synonyms for species in the genus Epidendrum.

According to Bentham and Hooker 1883, the concept Hormidium was originally published by Lindley as a section of Epidendrum in 1841. H. G. Reichenbach 1861 treated it as a subgenus of Epidendrum (we would say Epidendrum subg. Hormidium today), citing the same publication by Lindley.

Therefore, it seems that the concept deserves a more thorough treatment than a simple re-direct to one of the (at least) three genera in which its members are placed today. Jay L09 (talk) 05:34, 22 October 2009 (UTC)


 * The Free Dictionary has the mistake of considering it a synonym of Encyclia.
 * I think this could be neater as a disambiguation page, with a one-line listing for the illegitimate algal genus, each species that has ever been in this genus, as well as each of the three ranks that have been used with the same type.
 * This article discusses a taxonomic problem with the algal name, which would also be a good addition to such a disambiguation page. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 16:37, 28 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Actually Bentham & Hooker were wrong that Lindley originally published Hormidium as a "section". The Lindley article is online here and he clearly says that he is proposing subgenera. So the taxonomic history within Orchidaceae seems to be much simpler than the article previously claimed: Lindley published it as a subgenus; Bentham & Hooker raised it to a genus; it's now considered not distinct from Prosthecea, of which it is thus a synonym.
 * I've revised the article accordingly. I personally don't think that the material starting "Because the genus Encyclia features..." up to and including the quote from Bentham & Hooker is needed here; a brief summary of Bentham & Hooker's concept of the genus would be enough.
 * An alternative would be to move all the material to the Prosthechea article; we usually treat synonyms at the article of which they are a synonym. Peter coxhead (talk) 20:50, 30 October 2012 (UTC)