Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the NorthernTerritory

FAMILY CONCEPTS AND ARRANGEMENT OF TAXA
Apart from the distinction of the three major groups “Ferns and Fern Allies”, “Gymnosperms”, “Angiosperms’
and several classes within the first two groups, this is an alphabetical checklist. The listing follows Mabberley’s
Plant Book (2008) for families of flowering plants, as opposed to more recent editions which followed Cronquist
(1981). Circumscriptions of fern families follow Kramer (1990) with minor modifications as adopted by
McCarthy (1998). Authors’ names are abbreviated following Brummitt and Powell (1992).
All accepted names, including phrase-name taxa, are in bold. Alternative family names, synonyms and misapplied
names are in italics, with misapplied names also being in square brackets.
Synonyms are kept to a minimum and are generally only provided to link back to names used in volume 2 of the
Flora of the Darwin Region (Dunlop et al. 1995), Floodplain Flora (Cowie et al. 2000) and some recent unpublished
checklists. For additional synonyms, including phrase-names, see the APC site at http://www.chah.gov.au/apc/
Throughout Australia phrase-names have been coined for many taxa which are yet to be formally named. They
are used in the APC and have the following format:
Sida sp. Rabbit Flat (P.K.Latz 12326) R.M.Barker
Zornia sp. Darwin (J.S.Muspratt 186) N.T.Herbarium
A phrase-name has three components:
1. the first being the name itself, which usually reflects either the locality, a morphological feature or the
habitat of the species or infraspecific taxon being recognised,
2. the second part of the phrase-name is the specimen on which it is based, a quasi-type specimen in that
it provides the concept of the name, and
3. the final part is the source of the name, that is, of the taxonomist responsible for proposing the
prospective new taxon or a reference to the herbarium in which the name was coined.
This checklist conforms with the method adopted for the APC in providing a source for all accepted names but
generally omit them from synonyms.
For much of this checklist, names of individuals for phrase-names are included where they have been previously
recorded (e.g. as in Albrecht et al. 2007 and APC lists) and when they have been added to the HOLTZE N.T.
Herbarium specimen database in recent years. This reflects the fact that for many years phrase-names were for
in-house, curatorial purposes, with the name of the staff member, or members, who recognised a taxon not
being recorded. In the absence of a source name for an accepted phrase-name, “N.T.Herbarium” is provided in
accordance with the method of citation in the APC.
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