Then: the identification problem
Names through time
Before any climate model can run, someone has to decide which living plant Dioscorides meant by a Greek name. Since the Renaissance, physicians, botanists and philologists have disagreed. We read those identifications, cite them per plant and model the best-supported one. Where the debate is open, we say so on every page.
- Dated identification claims
- 115
- Authorities, 1530–2021
- 16
- Alternative candidate species
- 64
- Names with 3+ candidates · rated disputed
- 14 · 9
Cited for the identification we modelProposed an alternativeAlternative preferred by our sourceAlternative rejected by our sourceCommonly proposed, not verified by us
Renaissance commentators
Linnaean botany & Flora Graeca
Edition
Modern
150016001700180019002000Select a mark to read who proposed which plant, and the source we read it in.
Dates are each authority's main herbal or commentary (approximate, "c."), used to order the timeline. Claims are parsed from our curated identification table; every quote links back to a page scan or edition on the plant page.
Why this matters for the maps
- A disputed name can change the answer: we may be modelling the wrong plant. Disputed plants carry a badge everywhere, and the Methods page reports the ranking with them removed.
- Some debates are about a group, not one species. Sideritis (mountain tea) is a genus of several Greek species that the EU monograph treats together.
- Pharmacopoeias inherited these identifications. Tracing them is how a 1st-century text links to a 21st-century EMA monograph.