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Jasmines. A Word of Warning: Nomenclature (method of botanical classification) |
| Before you start it is as well to mention that I am not a trained professional botanist. My skills of nomenclature (the botanical method/conventions of classifying and naming plants) are basic and self taught, and this area I leave to those whose work it is. In the genus Jasminum one name stands above all others, Namely Peter Green of RBG Kew who wrote “Studies in the genus Jasminum III” when I was two years old! Peter Green is still very much involved (albeit at a reduced level but still at a remarkable level in excess of his years) in the genus and is at the time of writing directing other trained botanists to produce further research and botanical literature on Jasminum. My interest is purely from commercial horticulture and a personal aesthetic ‘garden’ point of view. I endeavour to use correct species names but there is a degree of confusion due to re-naming and re-re-naming of species. Also species that were unknown to cultivation when Peter Green wrote the study have now appeared and more species are finding their way from their wild habitat into gardens and collections. The ethical debate of wild collecting is dealt with later in this site so for now we will leave that little problem “off the table”. I have wherever possible listed possible synonyms (different names for the same species) but in one or two cases may have views of my own where the material (foliage and or flowers) is clearly different. Judge for yourselves and please feel free to make observations and corrections. Lastly this work is my own and from information gathered over the past years of growing and collecting but I have drawn on the work of several professionals in published and unpublished documents. Above all others (and especially in the area of classification and current hybridisation) I would like to thank Dr Judy Rose of England whose own professional work and help & wisdom over the years has tempered and channelled my boundless enthusiasm into a greater understanding of the much neglected Jasmines and has finally induced me to name them correctly! |
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