The Naming of Things

Photo by Mike Williams

Macadamia

  • there are only four species of macadamia nut tree
  • just four
  • they hail from Australia
  • the northeastern region to be exact
  • some might even call it the Queensland nut
  • they’re pretty big trees
  • big and evergreen
  • some of the species are currently found in Australia
  • others can be found in Indonesia
  • and still more can be found in New Caledonia
  • which is a French-owned archipelago in the South Pacific
  • it’s just off the east coast of Australia
  • but the thing is
  • many of the supposed “macadamia” trees that grow in these places
  • are not true macadamias at all
  • the genus Macadamia used to be much larger
  • but now there are only four
  • anything other than Macadamia integrifolia, M. jansenii, M. ternifolia, and M. tetraphylla
  • is not a true macadamia
  • there are plenty of macadamia-like trees that are coloquially referred to as macadamias
  • but they are not
  • it wasn’t until 2008
  • after more extensive genetic and morphological work had been done
  • that taxonomists realized that there were some trees in this genus that did not belong
  • botanist Ferdinand von Mueller named the genus in 1857 and it has taken us this long to figure out the split

We’re constantly changing the way we organize our own perception of the natural world, tirelessly splitting and lumping taxonomic groups. Getting caught up in this never ending shuffle is exciting, isn’t it? Categorizing the organisms we share this planet with, the naming of things, plants, and animals, is a beautiful process. Seeing a bird and just thinking “yes, that is a bird” is a fairly empty statement, but if you saw a bird and thought “yes, that is a tufted titmouse”, you would be able to attach that name to piles of information. That is the bird that nests in holes in trees and lays cream colored, brown speckled eggs. A name is a node onto which we append facts, discoveries, history. Names are the way we connect.

This planet is so much more than “yes, that is a bird”.

Source

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadamia?oldformat=true>.