Species and races in plants

Oct 17, 2001   Dov, in biologicalEvolution.

It might be of interest to learn that in Hebrew, my mother-tongue, the word for Race is also the word for a tree-trunk, Ge'za.

Now, unlike a gentleman farmer, who raises nothing but his hat, I do raise various trees as a hobby and based solely on personal observation I note that within a plant species (in Hebrew Meen, also means sex…)  each trunk is a "race" in the colloquial meaning yet each off-trunk branch is a unique individual with unique "special", but not as far as "race",  characteristics.  I think that this is relevant to the discussion about species and races.

Additionaly I suggest looking up Science, Vol 293,7 Sept 2001 (5536),page 1772, at the review of Stephen P Hubbell's book "The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography", which sounds like expansion of and elaboration on the "biodiversity number" that depends only on (random…)  speciation rate and the size of global community. Hubbell is a plant ecologist dealing mostly with subjects with special/unique modes of travel/spread, and the theory is a serious thought provoking challenge.