Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Banksia verticillata/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 18:55, 30 September 2010 [1].

Banksia verticillata edit

Featured article candidates/Banksia verticillata/archive1

Nominator(s): Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:42, 20 September 2010 (UTC), Hesperian (talk · contribs)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because I think it is the equal of the other Featured banksia articles, and I am superstitious about having 13 of them. Heperian did heaps of work earlier and I finally stumbled across the last source to double check and add recently. So have at it. I promise to respond quickly :). Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:42, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. No problems with dablinks or deadlinks. PL290 (talk) 20:49, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There is- HMS Investigator is a dablink. J Milburn (talk) 21:32, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, neither I nor the dablinks tool have seen that kind before. Is it lacking a category or something? Well spotted, anyway. PL290 (talk) 21:40, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I use User:Anomie/linkclassifier.css, which spots dablinks (and other things) for me. Couldn't edit without it now. J Milburn (talk) 23:33, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed dab to HMS Investigator (1798) Gnan garra 00:55, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Images are all good. J Milburn (talk) 21:34, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved comments from J Milburn (talk) 21:34, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Ok, giving it a read through. Not really a topic I know anything about, but I'll see what I can see. What is it with Banksia?

"New Holland Honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) is the most prominent pollinator, although several other species of honeyeater," Seems to be something a tad inconsistent about capitalising the species name but not the general name.
- That is conventional—names of species are capitalized, but not those of the higher categories. Nobody capitalizes "bird" either. Ucucha 20:50, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I pondered about that, I know it looks odd but I think it is the best - I mused on changing "honeyeater" to "Meliphagidae" but that is much less accessible to the general reader. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:53, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Brown nor Good mentions the collection in his diary" That's a little odd.

I wouldn't think so if a great many species were colllected. One might be lucky and have a very thorough reporter...or one might not. Remember this is the early 19th century. Hesperian added that initially so I will ping him. Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:59, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

in context A more precise date and location cannot be given, as neither Brown nor Good mentions the collection in his diary.[10][11] Bauer did not publish an illustration of the species[12] and his original field sketches are lost,[13] Brown and Good were meticulous with keeping diaries of their collections, with the spieces collected during their exploration, attributed to brown and inculded in a painting from the voyage, its unusual that the collection date and location wasnt noted in either diary. One could speculate that the collection was by someone else but even then one would expect some mention of that in either diary. Gnan garra 01:37, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

""Sirmuellera verticillata (R.Br.) Kuntze"" Why the quote marks there?

human error - no need for quotes.:) Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:51, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(Skipped over "Infrageneric placement", that's a little technical for me...)
I can't help but feel that there is more to be said about the "scattered populations"

I'll see what I can do to buff it a littel. We often get a little coy on being too specific with endangered species in case we inadvertently encourage tourism/interference/illegal picking or whatever. This organisim is exqusitely sensitive to dieback which is transported on footwear etc. so I really don't want to encourage folks to go there. Will update anon Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:02, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Birds have been reported travelling 15 m (50 ft) between inflorescences in a feeding session and preferentially choose flower spikes with partly opened flowers" Change in tense- not certain they should be the same sentence

I changed tense and added a comma for ease of reading Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:49, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"other banksia species" Caps? Italics?

The name is also used as a common name. However, given the scientific nature of the sentence I have italicised it. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:47, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"to a recommendation of 20 years between fires" That's odd- I'm assuming these are natural fires? Who's this recommendation to?

National Parks management and bush fire fighters regularly do controlled burns in areas to reduce fuel load (i.e try and minimise the amount of combustible vegetation. It is a vexed issue here in Australia as many people are keen for more frequent burns to reduce risk to suburbs near these areas. Hence the need for recommendation. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:47, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Too infrequent fire" Rephrase?

Reworded to "Too long a time between fires..." - am musing on whether we can even lose the "a time" really. Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:05, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

what about An excessive duration between fires..... Gnan garra 01:42, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

tsk tsk, that's two three-syllable words vs my three one-syllable ones (chuckle) Casliber (talk · contribs) 05:28, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Seems a generally a well written, very well researched article. J Milburn (talk) 16:36, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support now that my concerns have been dealt with, unless someone raises something else that is problematic. J Milburn (talk) 19:09, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

thanks - as a navigation aid, you happy to strike through resolved issues above? Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:35, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Go for it- strike them, collapse them, whatever. J Milburn (talk) 21:34, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Okay cool...umm..now to find the collapse template thingy...(sounds of wikipages ruffling) Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:37, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support and comments. Usual high standard, but two quibbles

all except one of which are located within 2 km (1.5 mi) of the coast. The remaining one is within 10 km (6 mi) of the coast — clunky and repetitive, how about all but one of which are located within 2 km (1.5 mi) of the coast; the exception is less than 10 km (6 mi) inland.?

Yeah I like that, works for me Casliber (talk · contribs) 13:52, 23 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

what's the point of the redlink in the Endlicher ref? It's not usual to redlink publications that don't have a url?

I think Hesperian did that one, namely a page which should have an article at some stage, but doesn't. It's the sort of thing that qualifies under Wikipedia:Red link, except that I just realised it isn't in article space so have removed it for now. Casliber (talk · contribs) 13:52, 23 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers, Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:55, 23 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

==Sources comments==: Just a couple of tiny nitpicks:-

Publisher locations lacking for book refs 7, 27, 36
Retrieval date formats not consistent. See, e.g., 8 and 30

got 'em all Casliber (talk · contribs) 09:02, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Otherwise, all sources & citations look OK. Brianboulton (talk) 14:21, 24 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support ~~Comments~~ by Sasata (talk) 21:45, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My suggestions have been mostly dealt with (still a couple minor things outstanding); I also did a lit search but couldn't come up with anything else to add. I think the article meets the FAC criteria. Sasata (talk) 15:56, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"It can be much smaller in more exposed areas." More exposed than what? The previous sentence did not say anything about it growing in sheltered areas.

Thinking more about this, I wondering why the plant grows bigger when it's sheltered. Wouldn't there be less sunlight available, and increased competition for water and nutrients with nearby plants? Sasata (talk) 16:26, 28 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Two reasons - the first, plants often grow to a height where they are taller than surrounds to get optimum sunlight - and for many of these that's pretty much full sun if possible - so you often see plants taller in gullies etc. The other reason is that the exposed areas are really exposed (i.e. wind-blasted from the Southern Ocean). Alot of clifftops have plants contorted into quasi-bonsai from the wind. Compared to that, anything is less exposed. Thus it's not just 'sheltered' places the plant is taller). I am rereading the population material now to see what else can be added. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:52, 28 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That makes sense. Still think the sentence in the lead (or the one previous) needs to be tweaked. Sasata (talk) 15:56, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

More is bettter so done. Casliber (talk · contribs) 04:34, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

*"A vulnerable species" vulnerable to what? Or is this a IUCN vulnerable species? Also, it's capital V in the conservation section

Now here's the thing - the Aust. gov't has rated it as vulenrable according to IUCN criteria but it isn't on the IUCN redlist. So do we link it to vulnerable species or not? Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:08, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm, I think maybe not. It's already linked in the taxobox as well as reffed to the EPBC Act, so that should suffice. Sasata (talk) 16:26, 28 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~link disjunct population, bushfire, seed bank~~

linked Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:22, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~"It takes around 9.5 days for all flowers to open, and rates are similar during the day and night." Rates of what?~~

Nevermind, I figured out it meant "rate of flower opening". Sasata (talk) 16:26, 28 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~"…was introduced into cultivation in England;[6] yet it did not result in formal publication of the species." semicolon doesn't seem like the right connector there~~

changed to comma - had been camouflaged by teh inline ref and missed Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:22, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

how about making that King George's Sound sketch bigger? It's difficult to distinguish much at the current size, and adds some color, and it looks maybe a bit odd to have the caption area larger than the image itself.

I've biggered it Casliber (talk · contribs) 05:54, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~link subspecies, varieties~~

linked Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:22, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

both taxonomic synonym and nomenclatural synonyms link to the same article, I don't know if it would be better to gloss the meaning here so the reader didn't have to dig in another article to find out. Plain ole taxonomy should be linked somewhere too.

Good points - I have linked to the exact section, and am trying to think of a succinct explanation, but am finding it hard without adding a hefty explanation. Yes it'd be good to link taxonomy...but the word is not used anywhere apart from a heading (which I can't link from) and I am having trouble looking to rephrase something to squeeze in - any suggestions? Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:40, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There was in fact a free "taxonomic" that could be linked. Sasata (talk) 16:26, 28 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dang, missed that one. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:37, 28 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~link clade and or cladogram or cladistics, gloss sister~~

first three are linked in first instance, meaning for sister placed in brackets. Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:17, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Banksia verticillata is found in scattered populations in two disjunct segments from Walpole eastwards to Cheynes Beach, east of Albany, all but one of which are located within 2 km (1.5 mi) of the coast, the exception is less than 10 km (6 mi) inland." sentence runon

split Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:30, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Anything more that could be said about this species' preference for granite soil? What minerals are predominant in this soil type?

e.g. it is calcareous? siliceous? Sasata (talk) 15:56, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~link scrub, heath, field study, cultivation, graft~~

linked Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:30, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~four consecutive sentences in Cultivation start with It~~

"Mixed it up" a little.. Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:19, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

is it necessary to repeat Banksia subg., Banksia sect. and Banksia ser. in the taxobox parameters? (e.g. "Section: Banksia sect. Oncostylis" just repeats information) I don't recall seeing the infrageneric classification given in the taxobox of other Banksia FAs. Will you change the others to match?

No it isn't so I have removed the nonintegral ranks (I recall there was a discussion somewhere that we generally don't do it) Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:30, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.