A plant with a provisional name what happens next

[Ernie]

In recent weeks I obtained two bulbs of Drimiopsis Lineociliata from a UK collector who got them from Charles Craib back in2000. The collector at the time was an importer/seller of cacti/succulents. Apparently at the time they were discovered and described by Craib as a new species they were known from only two small areas nr Tonteldoos, South Africa. Some of this apparently new species were sent to the UK dealer and some to Japan. It was assigned the above name provisionally.
I could not find any reference to this plant other than via google and there a number of pages in Japanese referring to it by the above name. As I don't understand Japanese I am no wiser.

I believe Charles Craib has passed away? in which case what happens now; will the plant never be formally described/accepted. Maybe no one else has bothered about it and it will only be known as a Drimiopsis species. I will treasure it whatever happens, not much to look at but interesting. Its taking some time to recover from being uprooted, when it has I will post a picture.

My post is really to try and understand the procedure relating to the formal acceptance of a name.

[iann]

There is no formal acceptance, only formal publication. Once formally (and correctly) published, the name is official although it may be largely ignored or superseded. If it is formally published, you will be able to find it in databases like IPNI online.

[Tony R]

I think this may be the plant named as Drimiopsis linioseta in 2008, published in Bothalia, described as coming from Tonteldoos.
https://abcjournal.org/index.php/ABC/ar ... le/265/211

[Ernie]

Thanks Ian and Tony. Interesting information. I intend to examine the plant in detail and hope it flowers to assist clarification. The problem I have is the tray of bulbs had been under a staging for years not getting a lot of light and I doubt much feed, if any, so its difficult to know if its grown as it should. Craib described it as having velvet like leaves and pink spots.

[Terry S.]

Potential new taxa in genera that do not have people actively working on them, could go un-named for years. One of the first thing that a new worker would do when starting work on a genus is to look at herbarium material. So this underlines the need for information to be available in herbaria. Traditionally, this has been dried specimens and few of us amateurs can get permits to collect any plant material. However, many (all?) herbaria are happy to have photographs deposited in them and this is maybe something we should consider when making field trips. If you see something unusual, make sure that it gets documented and filed for future use. I suspect that Charles Craib was probably quite good at preparing herbarium specimens from the things that he found.

[Jim_Mercer]

I found a picture at https://www.skyviewsucculents.com/ but all they seem to have is a gallery of pictures with no details for any of the plants

[Ernie]

Thank you. The last picture is what my two plants look like.