Scientists have voted to remove the names of certain plants deemed racially offensive. The decision to remove a label containing such an insult was taken recently after a grueling six-day session involving more than 100 researchers at the International Botanical Congress in Madrid.
The effect of the vote will be materialized in a change in the names of plants, mushrooms and algae that contain the word caffra, which comes from the insults brought to black people.
The measure will bring changes to more than 200 species
They will be replaced by the word affra to indicate their African origins. More than 200 species will have their names changed, including the coastal coral tree, which will be known as Erythrina affra instead of Erythrina caffra.
The researchers present at the nomenclature session also agreed to create a special committee to decide on names for newly discovered plants, fungi and algae.
They are usually named by those who describe them for the first time in the scientific literature. Even so, names could now be struck down by the committee if they were deemed derogatory to a group or race.
„A thin absolute monumental step”
Botanists disagreed with a more general move to regulate other controversial historical labels. However, the agreed changes are the first changes to the rules taxonomists have formally agreed on for naming species and were welcomed by botanist Sandy Knapp of the Natural History Museum in London.
“This is an absolutely monumental first step in addressing an issue that has become a real problem in botany and also in other biological sciences. It’s a very important start,” she said. potrivit The Guardian.
The amendment to remove the word caffra from species names was proposed by Professor Gideon Smith, a plant taxonomist at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, and his colleague Professor Estrela Figueiredo.
The two have been campaigning for years to change the international system of assigning scientific names to plants and animals, to allow the erasure and replacement of past names deemed unacceptable.
“We are very pleased with the retroactive and permanent eradication of a racial slur from botanical nomenclature. It is very encouraging that more than 60% of our international peers supported this proposal,” Smith told the Observer.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
