[Clipart] sycamoreseed_theresa_kno_01.svg

[Stephen Silver]

Elliott Bignell wrote:

> Might be worth pointing out that the tree known as the sycamore in
> Britain, Acer pseudoplatanus - a major weed tree species - has winged
> seeds. The tree known in America as the sycamore - Platanus occidentalis
> - appears to be the London Plane, so known because it was planted across
> London during the industrial revolution on account of its resistance to
> air pollution.

I think American "sycamore" is essentially the same as British "plane",
of which the London Plane is only one type.

> Might we need a way to enter multiple names for English and American
> English?

My understanding is that the way it's supposed to work eventually is
like this: there are standardized keywords, and the search interface for
each language translates words and phrases in that language into the
corresponding keywords.  This way there's no need to use keywords
in every language, which would not be feasible.  While this is intended
to cope with non-English languages, it also helps with dialects of
English.  For example, if someone searches for "ladybird" in the
English search interface, they should find all images of ladybirds
even if the keyword used behind the scenes is the American word
"ladybug".  And a search for "sycamore" in the English search inferface
should find images with the keyword for Platanus, and also images with
the keyword for Acer pseudoplatanus.

Of course, this is all pie in the sky at present.

-- 
Stephen Silver