Reclassification of Plant Names
Reclassification of Plant Names
We are in the process of doing an inventory of the plants we will have for sale.
In doing so, I realized that some of our plant labels need to be updated.
Why do botanists reclassify plant names?
I am still trying to get my head around the fact that Mahonia aquifolium is now Berberis aquifolium and the Genus Hebe is now Veronica.
I decided to reach out to the RHS, the Royal Horticultural Society is widely recognized as the UK's leading gardening charity and a primary, authoritative source for horticultural knowledge, research, and advice. Founded in 1804, the RHS aims to inspire passion and excellence in the science, art, and practice of horticulture. This is what they had to say on the subject:
Plant names can change for lots of different reasons, but the main ones are as follows:
- DNA Analysis – scientific testing may show that plants that may have previously been grouped together are not as closely related as once thought, and those plants may then be reclassified.
- The Rule of Priority – ICBN (The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature) states that the first, oldest name given to a plant should be the correct one. If an older name is discovered, then it replaces any newer names.
- Misidentification – plants may have been incorrectly named, so these are corrected in this case.
- Errors – plant names can change in error over time, for example spelling mistakes may appear, names may not be presented correctly or trademarks may be misused for cultivars.
- Synonyms – plant names may have a number of outdated scientific names.
Our role here at the RHS is to be an official International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) for several major plant groups, registering these and documenting, managing a verifying names that are created by the breeders.
Further information regarding plant names can be found in the RHS Plant Finder Directory which is published annually in September. This is the UK's leading source for checking plant names. You can also search their horticultural database and find plant profiles via the RHS Find-a-plant. This information is updated in the spring.
I've attached two pdfs for further reading:
See you in the garden,
Linda
