aaron can do whatever he wants to do. it's a free country. but for my own purpose, synonyms are useless. they are passing curiosity and do not add any value to growing specific type of figs. and if new members are trying to narrow down what to collect based on synonym, that's a round about way of selecting a tree. if they are trying to collect everything under the sun, i can understand... but why?

if you see a fig you like, you will start search into it. you will find known figs that is being grown by others in this forum or other places. find out true variety, then decide who you want to obtain the tree/cuttings from. i really don't see how synonym will figure into this. i mean.. i want Black Madeira, but it's hard to get right now and i don't have patience to wait for it from USDA/UCD so i'm going to go get Figo Preto? does that make sense to anyone? by the way, BM and FP are different in my location. BM is better specimen for my area. or i want RdB, but no one is willing to share.. so i'll look up synonym and get the closest matching name? 

it would be fun to see what synonyms are used for some figs, but do they really serve any specific purpose other than to waste my time looking for what Pastiliere might be called other than Pastiliere? by the way, there is no proof that Pastiliere was originated from japan and Hirta du Japon doesn't really fit the fig. 

if anyone's looking for trivial information on synonyms, they are already available. if aaron wants to try to generate complete and comprehensive list, good luck to him. but it's an impossible task. 

going back to BM and FP. per jon and others who found these in west coast, these two are very similar and might even be a same fig grown in different locations and has adapted to that location. growing both side by side in my deck for last two yrs, they are different enough i can't say they are same. BM does better in my area than FP. BM grows slowly, FP grows little better. BM branches out readily while FP grows straight up. i heard someone saying they are same.. would anyone use BM and FP as synonyms before actually growing them in their backyard and watching them grow for themselves? 

jon has 1200 trees or varieties.. don't remember which.. will aaron willing to grow that many and compare every one of the figs? or will he count on other people's words. we already seen enough misinformation on this thread. 

DNA... human and chimp share over 98% of their DNA. however, i'm positive that chimps will be offended if we call them Homo sapien.

Try going to http://wikipedia.org and search for "Chinese Date". You will get to a page with a headline of "Jujube" with a subheading that says "(redirected from Chinese Date)". So, the main article is Jujube, and Chinese date is considered a synonym for the same article. This seems like a good way to store detailed cultivar data and images. The search engine will lead you to a single article whether you enter the primary name or a synonym. So, it seems like both a good way to store/access the info plus relieve some of the difficulty of dealing with synonyms.

There are a few free wiki hosting services out there. I took the liberty of creating a free account just now and created a new empty fig wiki: http://figi.wikidot.com/

Maybe somebody could ask Jon if we could use the data from http://figs4fun.com/Varieties.html as a starting point? Then, you can all contribute to the wiki. If you aren't familiar with how a wiki works, ANYBODY can write a new wiki entry, or edit any page. Obviously there will be some dispute, but that's part of community knowledge.

Well, I created the site, but I don't plan to be the main contributor. If anybody wants to register (free) as a user, I'd be happy to assign you to "editor" status and you can start contributing.

1. Sorry to read a few harsh exchanges here. It has happened here a few times in the past and has left unpleasant memories; Members leaving the forum with various reactions some even deleting their post thus breaking many links in many threads. Harsh words and harsh responses need to be avoided for the benefits of all.
If someone is initiating a new or restarting an old thing and ask for some idea then he is asking for a favour. If interested giving input fine if not then just ignore the thread. However if someone says a few unhappy critical words then it need not be responded in kind but can be reminded in better words.

2. Yes, synonyms; A reliable list will be very helpful to all as already mentioned in this and other threads. It could happily reduce my collection by a good percentage since I do not do much comparison of my plants.
A good list will include not all figs mentioned as synonyms carelessly thrown around as synonyms and objected to by others for good reason as not being synonyms. Therefore the list may need more than two columns. I had started it (but then gave up) with three columns; c1 "fig variety", c2 "Recognized/consensus synonym)", c3"Possible synonym".
(I had removed c4 "Contested synonyms) which synonyms were mentioned in the forums but others contested it.

@Ottawan, your idea is what I am thinking would be very practical one ...I believe in saying.."keep it simple stupid!"
Your comments and input is greatly appreciated.

Aaron,
What type of format will this data take?
How will it be easily accessed?
Thanks

Paul: I don't want a format that can be edited by any viewer or user. It has to have a capability of being locked(this part is for Alan). Besides, I was thinking of a simple Spread Sheet type of format (this part goes for Pete's question).
But I'm open to suggestions.

I haven't read all the posts but I do know Adriatic is not Lampiera. Adriatic is a common fig and Lampiera is a San Pedro. It needs caprification for the main crop.
Long d'out is not figo Preto. Not even close. Please do not associate these names as being equal and expound on the name confusion.

Sue

Even though i had said I did not wish to participate in this thread, which i already have done anyways; I though I would add something that might be useful I hope.  Since the goal is to have synonyms with pictures etc. A dichotomous key may prove very helpful for people as well to distinguish varieties from one another and could add a tool to differentiate between similar cultivars.

An example is:
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/di%20key%20ex1.htm

My thought is if all the work will go into this will highlight differences, one of these keys may be easy (although time consuming) to construct and may help people narrow down what their trees are and may help stop wrongly named cultivars or newly named cultivars.

I know  these corrections are being made and we will see them soon.  This is great info to keep things on track.  
My own interest is to have a 50 fig tree orchard this year but I dont want it to be comprised of only 15 or 20  varieties if possible.

Hi Aaron,

Here in Malaysia, the Red Israel is also known as Khurtmani

Norhayati

Thank you @Norhayati, note taken ;)

Hi Aaron, great post, learning a lot, very helpful, Sergio in NJ.