The Cultivated Plant Code (108KB) - Royal Horticultural Society

This section ends with a series of further
Recommendations (i.e. not Rules) which, whilst not
mandatory for the purposes of the Code, give
guidance on names which might prove unacceptable
to others such as statutory authorities considering
names under National Listing or Plant Breeders’
Rights legislation.
Further consideration has also been given to the
often contentious issue of correct spelling, in the
full knowledge that this area can generate more
heated debate than all the rest put together (the
taxon/culton debate aside perhaps). New departures
in this Code include:-
• provision to add accents and other
diacritical marks if it is thought that
demands of linguistic custom are better
served by doing so, even if they were not
used in the original publication
• in transcribed Japanese epithets if a long
vowel is to be indicated with an accent that
must be the macron (e.g. - o) not the
circumflex or any other device
• the ligatures “æ” and “œ” indicating the
letters are pronounced together should be
transcribed as separate letters –ae- and –oe-
• the ampersand (“&”) is to be transcribed as
“and” – or its equivalent in other languages
depending on the language used when
establishment of the name took place
• the symbol #, when meaning ‘number’ in
English is be to be written as “No” or spelt
out in full: again provision being made for
different words in other languages.
In general this edition of the Code aims to
provide standardisation in dealing with spelling in
order that compilers of listings, especially in
electronic databases may have consistency in their
works.
Of particular significance to future
nomenclatural stability are the clarified and
augmented provisions for the continued recognition
of names contrary to the Code but which are in
widespread/long established use. Gradually
botanists have been extending provision in the
Botanical Code for well-known, widely used generic
and species names that fall foul of some
nomenclatural rule and the ICNCP has similarly
been developing provisions in this respect. If the
Codes are not to be seriously undermined such
action has to be taken sparingly and only with good
reason. In the 1995 Code a combination of
sanctioning (by an ICRA) linked to conservation
(by the Commission) was outlined, but the detail of
its operation was not clear and the conservation
element rarely invoked. In the 2004 Code ICRAs
have been given wider authority to designate a
name as acceptable (sanctioning as a term
disappears) and the Commission only becomes
actively involved if no ICRA exists or an objection
is raised to an ICRA decision. All decisions, either
of an ICRA or the Commission, are only effective
following their publication.
Trademarks are beyond the jurisdiction of this
Code and it is made clear that should an established
cultivar name be successfully challenged as being in
conflict with a prior trademark right, then a new
name has to be found for the plant concerned.
Similarly the formation of trade designations is
not regarded as a matter governed by the Code.
Indeed these devices, used to market a plant in
place of the accepted name, are not considered to
be names in the sense of the Code. The Code
merely indicates that trade designations should not
be enclosed within single quotes and recommends
they should be typographically distinguished from
cultivar epithets.
There is much more besides the rules within the
slim volume that forms the new Code, including a
full glossary, lists of the current ICRAs and
statutory registration authorities, as well as a listing
of special denomination classes and institutions
maintaining nomenclatural standards.
This Code is part of a continuing process of
evolution and improvement. A Code that changes
too much or too frequently will soon lose effect and
standing, but at the same time the rules need to
change to respond to changing practice and
opinion. If you have views that you feel are not
reflected in the Code please make them known to
the Commission.
Dr A C Leslie
IUBS Code Commission
RHS Garden, Wisley, Woking
Surrey GU23 6QB, UK
December 2004