Taxonomic Swap 12231 (Committed on 2015-08-06)

This is a reversion of http://www.inaturalist.org/taxon_swaps/12212. While Ngā Tipu Aotearoa – New Zealand Plants places this species in Erythranthe, Calflora and GoBotany place it in Mimulus. The Plant List (our tie-breaker authority for plants) does not even include the name Erythranthe guttata, so I think there's a clear case to maintain placement in Mimulus.

Some useful links:

http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2506223
http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/search?q=Erythranthe+guttata (goes to an entirely different species)
https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/mimulus/guttatus/
http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=5519
http://nzflora.landcareresearch.co.nz/default.aspx?selected=NameDetails&TabNum=0&NameId=E2E45D0B-4994-47EB-B0C9-42F2848EC950

See also this Google Group thread about this topic:
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/inaturalist/2ztt2BMqeCg/discussion

And for the record, while taxonomic revisions of Mimulus remain controversial, please remember that at iNat we do not base our taxonomy on primary taxonomic research unless we absolutely have to, and instead rely on the opinions of secondary taxonomic authorities. In this case, there are abundant opinions by secondary authorities, and that is the justification for making this change, not the strength of any underlying sequence data or what have you. For more about our policy of not following the primary literature, see http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide#policies

The Plant List (2013). Version 1.1 (Citation)
Yes
Added by kueda on August 4, 2015 06:08 PM | Committed by kueda on August 6, 2015
replaced with

Comments

I think this sounds reasonable

Posted by loarie over 8 years ago

Thanks for the links, appreciate the rationale behind your thinking.

Posted by brewbooks over 8 years ago

The vast majority of the scientists studying Mimulus support retention of name Mimulus guttatus. Breaking the genus of Mimulus apart is controversial and is only based on shaky phylogenetic evidence and was not the only taxonomic solution given the data. I would be happy to talk about this with folks further on this issue if they like.

Posted by davidlowry over 8 years ago

And you're one of those Mimulus scientists, right David?

Posted by loarie over 8 years ago

Yes, I have eleven years of experience conducting research with Mimulus guttatus.

Posted by davidlowry over 8 years ago

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