SC - Walking onions revisited-info- long response.

[Alderton, Philippa]

Adamantius sez:

>Possibly this is a case of clash between marketing jargon and scientific
terminology (Phlip, are you reading this??? ;  )    ). You know, the
impulse that gets hake, ling, and pollock to be sold as "scrod". <

Yes I am, A, and I strongly suspect that in this case, you're mistaken, oh
mighty guru of all things edible ;-)

Taxinomy (sp?) in not one of my strong suits- not even sure I'm spelling it
right- but I'll try to explain.

When latin names of species are given, they are given, they are given in
descending order from most general classification, to most particular
classification, thus the first word, Allium, is the name for all close
relatives in this plant group, which includes onions, garlic, shallots,
chives, and lilies. The second name given differentiaites a bit more,
possibly, in this case differentiating between types of fruits, since
tuberis indicates a particular type of apple tree in classical latin- none
the less, while related by the word "Allium", the words  cepa and tuberosum
indicate a structural difference. It's often difficult to figure out what
they're differentiating between, since it may be differentiated on a
microscopic or genetic lecel, and the name applied is not necessarily
descriptive, since the discoverer and chronicler of a new species has the
option of naming it with a latinized version of his name, his dog's name, or
whatever else suits his fancy, so if his name was Jones and he discovered a
new bear, he might name it "Ursus Jonesus". The addendum "aggregatum" would
be an additional differentiation of a subset of the cepa group.

To try to make this a bit easier, I'll go into species I understand a bit
better- dogs and horses. With dogs, their family name is canis, as it is
with wolves, but wolves are differentiated from dogs by the following terms,
lupus and familiaris. In this case, all dogs and wolves can interbreed, and
provide fertile offspring, so they're closely related, despite the disparity
in their objective appearances, ie a Great Dane and a Toy Poodle. They are
also all called "canids".

With horses, which include donkeys and asses as well as the modern riding
horse, horses can all interbreed with the donkeys and asses, but the
offspring are (usually) sterile- they just aren't as closely related as the
canids are, although they all may be lumped under the term equids.

There are also a couple of species of marmot which live together, play
together, and generally socialize together, but which never breed together
because their genitalia are simply incompatible- most likely what happened
is that the two species were seperated back in history for a long enough
period of time that they mutated and differentiated enough that when they
rejoined, they were incapable of breeding. These too would have
differentiated final names.

To bring this down to a conclusion, the latin names indicate that while the
two plants may be closely related on some, maybe many, levels, the taxinomic
differentiation indicates that they aren't, appearances to the contrary.
This is common in many ecosystems where a particular job must be done or
ecological niche must be filled, but the two species which do it, while
looking very similar to each other because of the necessities of the job to
hand, may be wildly geneticly different- Australia's many marsupials are an
excellent, obvious example.

As far as the example of the hake, ling, and pollock, which all are called
"scrod", a scientific type would give the proper names of each species,
unless he was feeling a bit silly, at which point, seeing them presented on
his plate rather than in his lab, he'd likely name them "piscus albus
delveccius," supposing he were eating them at Delvecchio's.

>Certainly the garlic chives I've seen (at least the mature ones) fit the
descriptions of the Egyptian "walking" onions that have been posted and
are found on the Web. <

See above. I've no doubt there is some difference which may not be obvious
to the casual observation, but is none the less signifigant to a botanist.



Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

The World's Need

So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs.

- - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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