Talk:Attalea (plant)/GA1

GA Review

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer: Ucucha 21:41, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Looking good; it appears to address the main aspects of the topic and is well-cited. One thing I noticed was that you mention the Haiti species twice in the "Distribution" section. I'll review in depth later (probably tonight). Ucucha 21:41, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for agreeing to do this. Took out the duplication. Guettarda (talk) 18:59, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

More comments:

• Does the Kew ref cite all synonyms? If so, you can use the |synonyms_ref= parameter instead (see Oryzomys albiventer for an example).
• "they consists peduncle and a rachis" - please fix sentence
  • Thanks for the fix. "off of which" is still not the most elegant wording, but it's at least grammatical (which is all the GA criteria demand).
• Why was it named after Attalus III? The connection between an American palm genus and an attalid king seems rather obscure.
• "Other less widely accepted genera have also been described." - please cite
  • Not terribly useful bit of info - it's presented in a far more useful fashion under the "synonyms" section of the taxobox. -- Guettarda
• Much of the disagreement revolves around the question of whether certain groups of similar individuals represent variation within species, or whether they represent groups of morphologically similar species. - "similar" twice in the same sentence
  • Rephased -- Guettarda
• When collections are sparse, it can be difficult to tell whether differences between specimens represent points on a continuum, or true discontinuities in variation. - please cite
  • Rephrased & cited -- Guettarda
• Distribution: probably good to say whose species definitions are used for the 62 species.

• Do I understand correctly that no one has actually recognized 73 species? If so, it would be misleading to give that number in the lead.
  • Thought I was following Pintaud, who presents all 73. Just looked back at his abstract though, and he says "29 to 67" in his abstract. So you're right. -- Guettarda
• There are some technical terms that are not explained in the article (pinnate, acaulescent, peduncle, rachis, remote tubular, plumule, apical meristem). Please explain these inline.
  • Acaulescent and remote-tubular are defined inline, but obviously not clearly enough -- Guettarda
  • OK, translated into English :) -- Gueuttarda
• Is there any particular reason why you mention these specific species complexes under "Species"?
  • I picked a couple to illustrate how these species complexes fit together. Why 2 - a useful number between 1 and "all". Why these two? First two big complexes discussed by Pintaud, but also because they show how it's more than just Henderson the lumper versus Glassman, Govaerts & Dransfield the splitters. -- Guettarda
• Out of curiosity, I searched through my literature collection for Attalea. That yielded a few things you might want to mention (but that should not have any bearing on whether this should be a GA):
  • The bat Anoura caudifer roosts in Attalea foliage
    • Mammalian Species 844.
  • The distribution of the howler monkey Alouatta ululata coincides with that of Attalea speciosa (if I understand the Portuguese correctly)
    • Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 23(1):64-144.
  • Attalea is an important food source for Cebus apella capuchin monkeys.
    • Primate Biogeography (Springer, 2006), ch. 4.
  • The bat Diclidurus albus was seen in an Attalea palm in Costa Rica.
    • University of California Publications in Zoology 134:303-352.
  • A possible Attalea fruit from the late Miocene of Venezuela. The genus has apparently also been found in the Eocene of Peru.
    • Journal of Paleontology 74(5):957-968. Peru Eocene is reffed in this paper to BERRY, E. W. 1929. Eocene plants from the Restin Formation of Peru. Pan American Geologist, 51:241–244. and BERRY, E. W. 1934. Extension of range of Attalea olssoni. Washington Academy of Sciences, 24:447–448.
  • Philander opossums eat Attalea fruit.
    • Fieldiana Zoology 86.
    • I'd be interested in seeing those references -- Guettarda

Ucucha 21:09, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

• • • • Will do.
        • Refs are listed above now. I'd be happy to help you out when you are unable to find any of those. Ucucha 15:41, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

It could do with a few more images; there are some reasonable ones at commons:Category:Attalea and Flickr. Ucucha 23:49, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

• Added a couple. Dubious about some of those - the "Corozo palm" is a common name used for several genera, and the fruit pictured are actually used in several genera. Ugh. -- Guettarda

I am now passing this as a GA. I'll give you the refs for the other papers later. Ucucha 14:02, 8 March 2010 (UTC)