The plane trees of Auckland, aka Platanus acerfolia

This will be a somewhat shorter post than most of my other offerings have been and it just may spin off the main topic. You've seen pictures of the trees I'm about to show you before, but you might not remember them specifically. They're in Victoria Park in Auckland and are beautiful. I've often wondered what they were. 

When I was in the city some time back to take pictures of the Kava Room, I spent some time  across the street from there in this park. At one point, a lady came along, walking her dog, and when she paused to let him sniff a tuft of grass near the bench on which I sat, I asked her if she knew the name of the trees that sheltered us.   

"They're plane trees," she said. 

When I got home Wikipedia told me lots more about them. 

Besides appreciating them for their beauty I now like them for their name as well. I'm going to talk a bit about that in this post. So settle back, take a look at a few wonderfully photogenic trees, (they are very good at posing I've found) and learn something about the wonderful world of 'binomial nomenclature.' 

These are ideal trees for parks. It is so cool in the shade. And look at how the trees seem to arch their limbs over us, as if they were reaching across the shoulders of a friend.  

(That was my bench on the right. The lady and dog have moved on.)

Do you remember learning about Carl Linnaeus in school?  He was that Swedish botanist who began binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. 

You probably recall. All the names are written in Latin. The first name is capatalized and is of the Genus name of the organism. The second word is the species name.  Both words, usually, by their original meaning in Latin, try to describe the object of the name. Take a look at the leaves of this plane tree.  

 That young leaf is about the width of my hand.  

These more mature leaves are huge. That one is about three hands wide. 

It looks a lot like a maple leaf.  Whoever named this tree, when he called it Platanus 'acerfolia' was saying in effect, "It has leaves (foliage) that look like a maple tree's leaves. 'Acer' is the genus name of the maples. (Acer sachharum is the sugar maple..a maple with sugar in it.)    
Can you understand why I like this binomial naming thing?   

And it turns out that there is an Acer pseudoplatanus. ( The common name for the genus Platanus in North America is sycamore, and pseudo means false) 

So, we have a Platanus, a 'sycamore' with leaves like a maple in Auckland and we have a maple that looks like a false sycamore in North America. I love it. 

These are massive trees. ( Little wonder they need big leaves.) And they are certanly worthy of their elegant name.  

That's a Platanus acerfolia if ever I saw one. 

 “The world is so full of a number of things, I ’m sure we should all be as happy as kings― Robert Louis Stevenson

Now let's look at this naming business in more detail. (I warned you I might spin off the main topic.) 

While it is true that many scientists stick to the basics when naming an organism, some have fun with the process, naming it for people or just getting silly.

A species of spider has been named Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi. 

I wonder what Mr. Young thinks of having a spider named after him? Maybe the namer of the spider liked this recording of Neil's.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0t0EW6z8a0 


If you're ever asked to give an example of the binomial system, (however unlikely that seems to you right now, it could happen) here's one that you can use that is 100% genuine and super easy to remember. I'll bet you couldnl't forget it if you tried. The binomial name of the western gorilla (the most common one) is Gorilla gorilla. Just remember to capalize the first name and italicize it if you write it sometime and you'll sound like a scientist.   

I also like these following examples.

This namer had trouble coming up with enough names. He was a scientist who had discovered nine species of leafhoppers. He apparently ran out of fancy sounding names after eight.  He just gave up and called the last one Erythroneura ix. (lke the roman numeral for nine) 

Another namer had a great sense of humor. (or maybe he was just tipsy)  He was a biologist who discoverd a whole eclipse* of moths. Do you think he had fun naming them? He started with Eucosma bobana, and then continued with E. cocana, E. dodana, E. fofana, E. hohana, E. kokana, E. lolana, and E. momana. 

Actually it's little wonder that he had to resort to such lengths. There are 670 described species of the moth Eucosma. (He had probably already named some after his family, his friends, his enemies, his high school graduating class, old college sweethearts, streets in his town, and names at random out of the phone book.)   

As I imagine it, he was sitting at his kitchen table one night with his wife. 
"Honey," he said, "I've still got 37 more moths to name by Monday morning and this is Sunday night. I'll never make it. What am I going to do?"
"Don't worry dear," his wife replied, "Bob and Anna  gave us a bottle of scotch last Christmas. It's still in the cupboard. What'ya say we get that out and toast to them. Maybe we'll get some ideas...."
Several shots later, Bob and Anna had become bob 'n ana and then finally bobana. 
They had found the solution. 

Here are some more legitimate scientific names.

How about the insect, Cedusa medusa; the beetle, Agra phobia; the other beetle, Ytu brutus; and the fly, Pieza Pi?   And you thought scientists were just a bunch of nerds. (Probably just jazzed up on beakers of really strong coffee) 

Want a few more? There is a fungus named Spongiforma squarepantsii, an endangerd snail in Fiji known as Ba humbugi, and a wasp which is called, Polemistus chewbacca. I think my favorite one is the fossil fish, Fiordichthys slartibartfasti.  (from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Slartibartfast was a Magrathean who designed planets and whose specialty was fiords.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5xcvAoKojo


Other fantasy worlds have contributed names as well. There is for example, an arthropod called Gollumjapyx smeagol and a dinosaur (it had a dragon-like head) known as Dracorex hogwartsia.  

Well, I warned you that we might wander a bit tonight. I've taken you from Auckland, to North America, through Fiji and to Hogwarts.(sort of)  It's funny how that happened. I was just sitting there in Victoria Park, waiting to have some kava and wondering what those trees around me were?  Go figure.                                -djf


*The correct group name for moths is an 'eclipse' of moths.