A Guide to Scientific Names of Vascular P1ants

Published in Probe Volume 6 (Final): July 1996

James L. Reveal
Department of Plant Biology
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland

I have always been amazed by biologists at the cutting edge of science who are so distressed that taxonomists--those who deal with the identification, naming, and classification of living things--might change the names of their favorite organisms or classify them differently from what they learned at the beginning of their careers. It is almost as if science should be allowed to progress in every realm except for systematic biology.

The development of new molecular techniques allowing the study of relationships in a fashion never before seen in biology is radically altering the classification of plants, particularly vascular plants--those generally referred to as the ferns, fern-allies, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. In addition, a detailed evaluation of the scientific names that I am conducting might cause some names in current use to be altered.

Scientific names of plants are governed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the provisions of which are managed by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy under the ultimate authority of the United Nations. Provisions in the Code are reviewed every 6 years, with the most recent review having been held in 1993. The present Code contains provisions that should significantly reduce name changes solely for nomenclatural reasons. It is now possible to conserve names of species; conservation of names of genera and families has long been possible. Furthermore, we can now reject any name that would cause nomenclatural instability. Disruption of widely used names should be a thing of the past.

Nonetheless, relatively few names are changed for nomenclatural reasons. Most are altered, in fat or in concept, as a result of evidence from new research that shows a previous disposition to be incorrect. Taxonomic changes are made only to accommodate new evidence; such changes may or may not affect nomenclature. The Code does not regulate taxonomic judgment, only nomenclature.

In recent years, several workers have proposed new, broad systems of classification for higher plants. These works (Dahlgren 1989a, b; Cronquist 1981, 1988; Takhtajan 1986, 1987; Thorne 1992a, b) have been augmented by others who have concentrated on arranging generic names into families (Brummitt 1992; Greuter et al. 1993; Gunn et al.1992; Wielgorskaya 1995). Watson and Dallwitz (1991) have placed their family descriptions on the Internet, and they are updating the information from time to time.

To assist non-taxonomists in dealing with scientific names above the rank of genus, the lndices Nominum Supragenericorum Plantarum Vascularium Project, sponsored by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy and the Norton-Brown Herbarium at the University of Maryland at College Park, in cooperation with the National Agricultural Library at Beltsville, Maryland, is providing a series of interactive databases that offer the following:

1. An index to all validly published names for vascular plants proposed above the rank of genus. Each name is provided with a full bibliographic citation.
2. A concordance of how each of the authors cited above, including myself, treat each family name. In this way, it is possible to ascertain the disposition of any validly published family name.
3. A linear sequence, either alphabetical or phylogenetic, of all of the families names recognized by each author, as well as each familys synonymy.
4. A listing of the full phylogenetic arrangement of the flowering plants from the rank of division to family accepted by Cronquist, Dahlgren, and Thorne. The new but yet- to-be-published system of Takhtajan will be added in the near future. Also available shortly will be a full phylogenetic arrangement of all extant vascular plants that I accept.

The Indices also provide direct access to the descriptions given by Watson and Dallwitz, and to the dispositions of the genera according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, edited by John Wiersema. A splitters guide to the flowering plants was recently published (Reveal 1993). At present, the detailed survey of the botanical literature has concentrated on works published before 1860. In time, all suprageneric names should be included in the Indices.

References

Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants. Columbia University Press. New York.

Cronquist, A. 1988. The evolution and classification of flowering plants. New York Botanical Garden. 2d edit. Bronx.

Dahlgren, G. 1989a. The last Dahlgrenogram: System of classification of the dicotyledons, pp. 249-260. In: K. Tan, R.R. Mill, and T.S. Elias (eds.), Plant taxonomy, phytogeography and related subjects. Edinburgh.

Dahlgren, G. 1989b. An updated angiosperm classification. Journal of the Linnean. Society, Botany 100: 197-203.

Greuter, W., R.K. Brummitt, E. Farr, and others. 1993. Names in current use for extant plant genera. Regnum Vegetabile 129.

Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and others. 1992. Families and genera of spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. United States Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin 1796.

Reveal, J.L. 1993. A splitters guide to the higher taxa of the flowering plants (Magnoliophyta) generally arranged to follow the sequence proposed by Thorne (1992) with certain modifications. Phytologia 74: 203-263.

Takhtajan, A.L. 1987. Systema magnoliophytorum. Izd-vo "Nauka", Leningradskoe old-nie. Leningrad.

Thorne, R.F. 1992a. An updated phylogenetic classification of the flowering plants. Aliso 13: 365-389. Thorne, R.F. 1992b. Classification and geography of the flowering plants. Botanical Reviews 58: 225-348.

Watson, L. and M.J. Dallwitz. 1991. The families of angiosperms: Automated descriptions, with interactive identification and information retrieval. Australian Systematic Botany 4: 681-695.

Wielgorskaya, T. 1995. Dictionary of generic names of seed plants. Columbia University Press. New York.