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HORTAX Cultivated Plant Taxonomy

HORTAX Cultivated Plant Taxonomy

Cultivated TaxonomyNs ew Issue 2 ■ June 2014

Culture and : new tools for a new understanding James Armitage Editor

As Chairman of Hortax, one of the things I am enthusiastic to impress on people is the cultural importance of cultivated . When they have undergone a process of selection or breeding, plants become examples of living history, forever connected to customs, fashions, events, places and people. In time they can even take on a symbolic significance in folklore, myth and legend. Above, clockwise. Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’, seen through first-century Pompeian, I was particularly struck by these ideas nineteenth-century Belgian, and twentieth-century English eyes. when visiting China last July to attend the Sixth International Symposium on her thoughts on the Symposium and photos ( the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants in analyses the development of these Hortax on clockwise Beijing. As a European, I had not before conferences over time. In the second, had the opportunity to meet so many Camellia expert Twitter Jennifer Trehane ). Asian researchers, and I came away discusses how taxonomic information Hortax is now social stefano with the strong impression that the can be lost in translation when plants networking! The cultural relevance of the plants they are moved around the globe. Hortax Twitter feed bolognini were investigating was an important offers links to ; factor in their work. I hope their Also in this edition, Mike Grant news and rhs , message that taxonomic study is a makes the case for The Plantsman observations lindley tool that can be used to examine the as a place to publish horticultural from the

library heritage that plants represent will come taxonomy and Penny Maplestone world of ; to be understood more widely. draws attention to the importance cultivated plants. tim

of taxonomic testing in bringing new Follow us on sandall In this issue of CPT News we feature crop varieties to market. ■ @cptaxo two articles that I hope will emphasise . the links between researchers in the ► CPT News is circulated free of charge all over the world to East and West and the common institutions, libraries and individuals with an interest in cultivated plant challenges that face them in the taxonomy, and is a great way of publicising your work. If you would future. In the first of these Zhang Lu, a like to write an article for CPT News, please contact James Armitage delegate and speaker in Beijing, offers ([email protected]). HORTAX horticultural taxonomy group CPT News ■

For more information contact News in brief [email protected] New checklist New ISTA list

A checklist of banana names The 6th edition of the has been made available online ISTA List of Stabilized through Bioversity International. Plant Names has Hosted on the ProMusa website (www. been published by promusa.org/Banana+cultivar+checklist), the Nomenclature it is hoped that it will one day provide Committee of the a complete listing with comprehensive International synonymy. are listed with Testing Association. their local name and location, the The List is available Group into which they are classified on the ISTA website and additional notes with some links and a new web page to images and further information on for searching this the Musapedia pages. Edible banana nomenclature has cultivar nomenclature is complicated now been created on by the plethora of local names the GRIN website with applied to them and the checklist is versions in French, an important preliminary to further German, Portuguese, work. Rhiannon Crichton of Bioversity and Spanish in explains, “We hope that the existence addition to English. of the checklist will stimulate renewed The Nomenclature activity in banana cultivar description, Committee now classification, understanding of the aims to produce a spatial distribution of cultivar diversity, multilingual glossary harmonising in situ and ex situ ‘Ruhuvia Chichi’, a pink-fleshed banana of common names for germplasm collections and much else.” cultivar. Photo. Gabriel Sachter-Smith. crop plants.

New edition of the Hillier Manual published

The eighth edition of The Hillier and taxonomy in the Manual withThe

manual of

Manual of and is now that of RHS Plant Finder,” said RHSTrees & shrubs available. This is the first update Botanist Dawn Edwards. “This will since 2002 and the first edition that hopefully do much to provide a has been published by the Royal robust andThe durable classic horticultural set guide, of revised names & updated for Revised and fully updated with horticultural notes compiled by hillier nurseries and botanists from the Royal horticultural Society, this new edition Horticultural Society and edited woody plants incontains gardens.” over 13,000 plants representing The work more than 700 genera.

Reissued in the 150th anniversary year of hillier by the Society’s botanists. Besides was done in closenurseries, The collaborationHillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs not with only remains an enduring tribute to the late Sir harold hillier, but continues to be an erudite source The its concise descriptions of plants consultant editorsof reference for everyRoy horticulturist Lancasterand gardener. manual of and supplementary information and John Hillier and includes 1,500 Trees& regarding cultivation, introduction new entries, bringing the total shrubs dates and notable specimens, to over 13,000.£19.99 Interesting new

the book is also an authoritative entries include Xanthocyparis revised & updaTed wiTh 1500 new planTs taxonomic reference. “We are vietnamensis, only described in particularly pleased to have been 2002, and a number of beautiful able to harmonise the nomenclature bamboos of the Borinda. 2 ■ June 2014

Orchid Register classification was previously now in line based, are sometimes Work begins on unreliable as indicators of online vegetable with Genera genetic affinity. database Orchidacearum Updating the Register has The International Register been a massive project for Work is under way at Science and of Orchid Hybrids has the Registrar, Julian Shaw, Advice for Scottish Agriculture been updated in line with who has had to create (SASA) on an online database the forthcoming sixth and numerous new of cereal and vegetable crops. final volume of Genera genera. “Well over 1,000 new The database will focus Orchidacearum (GO). GO is hybrid genera have been for which SASA has statutory the output of an international erected to accommodate the responsibility and will provide research group working GO system,” reports Julian. descriptions and information on on the classification of pedigree and disease resistance. It orchids and is widely used Below. Watercolour on vellum will be similar in to the existing by the orchid community of Vanilla planifolia by European Cultivated Potato Database worldwide. It is the first Claude Aubriet, c. 1700. Identified (www.europotato.org). rigorously tested molecularly as Vanilla flore viridi et albo by the based classification of artist. Photo. RHS, Lindley Library. the whole New Zealand cultivar and shows that database under syndromes, on construction which the Murray Dawson of the New Zealand Plant Collection Register Project is overseeing the creation of a database of cultivar names of New Zealand plants with full bibliographic references. Although not yet available online there is an ambition to integrate it with the database of New Zealand plant names maintained by Landcare Research (http://nzflora. landcareresearch.co.nz/default.aspx).

Nursery catalogues digitised Scanned versions of 6,122 seed and nursery catalogues have been made available through the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/search. php? query=collection%3Ausda- nurseryandseedcatalog). The catalogues are from the US National Agricultural Library’s collection and can be downloaded as well as searched.

HORTAX 3 horticultural taxonomy group CPT News ■

For more information contact Hortax news [email protected] New plant Lost Names Project

taxonomist The Lost Names Project is a directory collaborative effort to bring to light the wealth of inaccessible It is hoped the Hortax taxonomic information that waits website will soon host a to be uncovered in early gardening directory of individuals with literature. an interest in cultivated plant taxonomy. The first initiative undertaken as part of the Project is to provide a cumulative The area would provide a index to Gardeners’ Chronicle. This means of sharing work and journal was first published in 1841 information and facilitate and ran for more than a century collaboration. The directory before merging into entries would be edited by Week in the 1980s. It is a periodical the individuals featured and, of immense value to the study of besides listing biographical cultivated plants, being the first place information and publications, of publication of the names of a great could contain external links number of garden plants as well as and highlight particular wild taxa. As it is hoped to include all areas of interest. If you are subjects indexed, not just plant names, interested in setting up Above. Sequoiadendron the project should also be of great a personal page on the giganteum, first published as service to garden historians and other Hortax website please email Wellingtonia gigantea in the historical researchers. [email protected] Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1853. At present ten libraries are contributing to the project, but Hortax European mini-conference in 2015 is keen to recruit the help of other libraries, institutions or It is hoped RHS Garden the headings individuals. If you or your Wisley will be the venue Research, institution would for a planned gathering of Cataloguing like to take part European cultivated plant the please email taxonomists hosted by Diversity hortaxgroup@ Hortax in spring 2015. of gmail.com Cultivated There would be no Plants in Left. The Gardeners’ registration costs and food Europe, and Chronicle was founded photos and refreshments would Registration in 1841, and continued .

be provided. The theme of and Databases. If publication until 1985, rhs

the 3-day mini-conference you would like to when it became part of lindley would be Communication express an interest in Horticulture Week.

and Collaboration, and attending please email library it would feature lectures [email protected] and discussion under 4 ■ June 2014

recombinations and taxonomic photos

treatments and has even been the place . Taxonomy rhs

of publication of a number of /

names in genera of horticultural merit. neil and The hepworth How do you keep on top of nomenclatural ( change in the world of horticulture? mike

Plantsman grant

I’m a member of the RHS Nomenclature ); Mike Grant has been editor of The and Taxonomy Advisory Group (NATAG) david

Plantsman since 2004, before so I keep up to date with taxonomic ross

advances and proposed name changes ( which he was Senior Botanist with the Royal Horticultural Society at that might affect garden plants. These Wisley. Here, in conversation with are all discussed and assessed by NATAG

CPT News, he advocates the journal before being adopted by the RHS prior to ). as a means of keeping abreast appearing in RHS Plant Finder. If a major of taxonomic developments in nomenclatural change is adopted then horticulture. I will find someone to write an article for The Plantsman What exactly is the function of the Plantsman? explaining the change and One of the How does it differ from the RHS members’ one of the key functions of the magazine The Garden, for instance? journal is in providing a bridge key functions between scientific workers and of the journal The Plantsman is essential reading for all horticulturists. Minor changes informed gardeners and is dedicated to a to names of garden plants and is in providing deeper understanding and appreciation updates to identities of plants a bridge between of garden plants. Its core subject matter in commerce are summarised is in-depth profiles of particular annually in the June issue. scientific workers genera, but articles also cover “ and horticulturists. recent plant introductions, What else can the reader expect, plant exploration, results of apart from items on taxonomy RHS trials, and plant name and nomenclature? changes and developments in taxonomy. Recent articles include verification of Hesperantha coccinea cultivars, I’m interested to Trachycarpus in the wild and The Plantsman is a hear you mention in cultivation, advances in quarterly magazine taxonomy. How breeding, Kniphofia in South published by the important is this aspect of Africa, double scented violets, RHS. Articles cover the Plantsman? climbing hydrangeas and their relatives, plant breeding Rhododendron species introduced and selection, One of the main functions of the since 1981, plant hunting in Bhutan, In new or advanced articles is to help ensure garden search of Chinese ashes, hard seed propagation plants are correctly identified and coats and propagation, a new species and cultivation to provide background information to of blue poppy, Disporum in cultivation techniques, profiles support this. This thread runs through and the results of trials of Indigofera, of prominent the genus profiles and accounts of RHS Roscoea, climbing Lonicera and hardy horticultural figures, trials in particular. Chrysanthemum. ■ and there are also sections devoted to The journal is also an appropriate news, book reviews place to publish cultivar names, Above. Hesperantha coccinea ‘Major’. and readers' letters. HORTAX 5 horticultural taxonomy group CPT News ■ Testing times Penny Maplestone, Chief Executive of the British Society of Plant Breeders, explains how the development and registration of new crop plants is helping tackle global problems and the importance of taxonomic testing to the process. addressing global concerns over food he past 50 years have security and sustainable development. seen major advances in UK crop production: a Tdoubling of cereal yields The value of taxonomic and production, oilseed rape established as the break crop assessment of choice, forage maize adapted Taxonomic assessment of new crop for UK growing conditions, and a varieties lies at the heart of progress in huge diversification in the range modern plant breeding. of vegetable and ornamental plants available. Before seed of a new crop variety can be marketed, it must undergo a The genetic improvements delivered rigorous process of statutory testing by new plant varieties have and characterisation. Once named, underpinned these changes and, successful varieties are placed on a as the world faces up to the major legally binding National List or register challenges of population growth, of approved varieties. climate change and pressure on finite natural resources, the contribution In the case of wheat, for example, of plant breeding is increasingly testing involves inspecting some recognised as a key factor in 30 individual plant characters over two years of trialling to verify that the new variety is distinct (i.e. clearly distinguishable from other varieties), Above. DUS growing tests of new wheat varieties for that its characteristics are uniform variety registration and PVR usually take two years. Here from one plant to another, and that the an off-type is tagged to be counted in a test for uniformity. variety is stable from one generation 6 ■ June 2014

to the next. This is known as DUS Left. Off-type variegated The PVR system also protects and testing (Distinctness, Uniformity and watercress, from a recent stimulates continued innovation Stability). application. Some plants in plant breeding by ensuring that have begun to revert protected varieties are freely available For agricultural crops, National back to normal green for use as parental material in other Listing involves additional trials to foliage. Above and inset. breeding programmes. Known as the establish a candidate variety’s Value The SASA (Science and “breeder’s exemption”, this process has for Cultivation and Use (VCU). This Advice for Scottish underpinned the major advances seen provides an independent assurance Agriculture) DUS trial in plant breeding since PVR were first that only varieties with improved of celery, grown under introduced in the mid-1960s. performance or end-use quality can cover in a polytunnel, be approved for marketing. 2013. For further information about the business and science of plant breeding visit www.plantbreedingmatters.com Plant Variety Rights ■

DUS testing also underpins the unique, internationally recognised form of about bspb intellectual property known as Plant

Variety Rights (PVR), which provides a The British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) is the representative all further means by which the taxonomy body and royalty collection agency for the UK plant breeding images and nomenclature of a new variety industry, comprising more than 60 individual members ranging can be legally fixed. This protection from multinational and independent businesses to public sector sasa / allows breeders to charge a royalty on research institutes. The Society represents members’ interests on crown the production and sale of protected technical and regulatory matters and works to promote continued varieties, so providing a financial return innovation and investment in UK plant breeding. For more copyright on the investment required to develop information, go to www.bspb.co.uk a successful new variety. . HORTAX 7 horticultural taxonomy group CPT News ■

Zhang Lu is a PhD student at Beijing University and was a speaker at the Sixth International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants. Here she presents her impressions of the event and assesses how the Symposia have developed over time. Reflections on Beijing 2013

This was the first of the Symposia to be held in Asia and consequently it attracted more Asian botanists’ attention than ever before, including researchers from China, South Korea and Japan. This diversity was reflected in the wide range of research interests reported on in the oral and poster presentations which, among other topics, covered morphological variation of Hibiscus syriacus in the central Korean peninsula, conservation of endemic Iris in eastern China, a new species of waterlily from Thailand and grain

. Amaranthus genotypes in South Africa. In a of presentations a chao

yu Chinese team of researchers gave a . clear and detailed account of their photo work on cultivated Chrysanthemum, from hybridisation to cultivar identification using techniques ranging from morphological comparison to molecular analysis. It was striking that Asian researchers focused mainly on resource collection and the taxonomic t is now nearly a year since the Sixth study of cultivated plants and their relationships with wild taxa, while the International Symposium on the efforts of European researchers were Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants was concentrated more on nomenclatural I matters, particularly cultivar hosted in Beijing but the impression it registration and the standardisation left has not faded with time. of cultivated plant names. 8 ■ June 2014

Historical context

While the central themes of the Beijing Symposium – nomenclature and taxonomy – were unchanged from the first Symposium held in Wageningen in 1985, the intervening 27 years have seen progression in many areas. For example, the prediction made in Wageningen by Vernon Heywood that computers would be widely used in the taxonomy of cultivated plants has now been fully realised.

The second symposium dealt more with nomenclature than the first. Above. Beijing Botanical progress that had been made after Specifically, registration of several Garden. Photo. Primlarp 50 years of the ICNCP. genera was featured relating to Wasuwat. Below. Zhang Lu. cultivars of orchid and pea. The use The fifth Symposium attempted to of the internet in registering address the problem of establishing Triticale cultivars hinted at cultivar names as printed catalogues things to come. The Beijing become rare and this is still an issue requiring resolution. With the development Symposium of technology, modern will encourage techniques (AFLPs, SSR Looking to the future markers, RAPD-PCR) have solutions to been widely employed in be found through New technologies have substantially breeding and taxonomy, and, facilitated the classification and since the third Symposium wider international taxonomic reconsideration of a large in 1998, research assisted by “ number of cultivars. Moreover, the cooperation. these molecular tools has internet offers an unprecedented been reported, discussed and means of addressing nomenclatural compared with traditional matters and stabilising names. morphological study. However, numerous difficulties remain such as settling the From the fourth symposium on, relationship between the Linnaean Asian research has been represented naming system and that of cultivated led especially by Professor Jin plants and the conflict that often Xiaobai from China. He illustrated the exists between scientific and problems faced by those using the market-driven nomenclature. The Chinese language in following the Beijing Symposium will encourage rules of the ICNCP and suggested solutions to be found through modifications to help countries wider international cooperation, using ideograms. Continuing this, which is fostered by being able to in the latest Symposium Japanese meet colleagues, not only to share researcher Hiroyuki Ikentani outlined research, but also to interact face to similar barriers in applying the ICNCP face. I feel the Symposium offered in Japan. The fourth Symposium also me a great opportunity to make new offered the opportunity to assess the contacts and friends. ■ HORTAX 9 horticultural taxonomy group CPT News ■

Jennifer Trehane, author of Camellias, the Gardener’s Encyclopedia, discusses the important Registration work of the International Camellia Society and the nomenclatural proliferation that can occur when East meets West. Camellia conundrums n addition to the cultivation was eventually reinstated in since ancient times of Camellia the late 20th century. sinensis for tea, other species Iof camellia have been grown as International trade ornamentals in China for probably increased as the over 1,800 years and are now introduction of new grown throughout the temperate species encouraged world. Desirable selections were breeding in temperate originally described by scholars, countries around the first in China, then in Japan, using world and names oriental names in oriental script were often changed but on their arrival in the West (especially in translation) as plants on the clippers bringing tea to were exchanged by enthusiasts and Europe they were immediately nurserymen. renamed, using the Latinised terminology popular at the time. By 1961 Charles Puddle, head gardener A beautiful, formal double white at Lord Aberconway’s Bodnant Garden introduced in the 1790s in North Wales, was working with was variously named ‘Flore Plena Albert Fendig, a lawyer and camellia Albo’, ‘Albo Pleno’ and ‘Alba Plena’, enthusiast in Georgia, USA, and Ralph while ‘Hagoromo’, an ancient Philbrick of the L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Japanese cultivar imported New York to try to bring to the into Italy in 1886, was promptly situation. Puddle suggested that an renamed ‘Magnoliaeflora’ International Camellia Society should (‘Magnoliiflora’). A popular and be formed with the main objective distinctive camellia, this name of producing a checklist of all appeared in all nursery catalogues known camellia cultivars. He in the West until the original name wrote to 1,000 camellia enthusiasts 10 ■ June 2014

Far left. Camellia japonica ‘Hagoromo’, an ancient Japanese cultivar imported into Italy in 1886. Photo. RHS / Carol Sheppard. Left. Camellia japonica ‘Anticipation’, which is sold in China as ‘Qiwang’. Photo. Jennifer Trehane.

around the world Many older garden specimens and the International have lost labels and some have Camellia Society been graced with new names to (ICS) was formed identify them. Examples include in 1962, becoming ‘The Count’s Buttonhole’, a name the International provided by the owners of the Registration Authority Palheiro Gardens, Madeira for a for the genus in the 150-year-old camellia acquired same year. by the garden’s well-dressed originator; and ‘Captain Martin’s The initial checklist Favorite’ for a double-flowered compiled by Ralph C. japonica in Magnolia Gardens, Below. Camellia japonica. Philbrick consisted of about 15,000 South Carolina. Such practices can Watercolour on paper by camellia names published between sometimes cause confusion and C. an unknown 19th century 1752 and 1958 and the work was japonica ‘Elegans’, raised in 1831, has Camellia conundrums Japanese artist, from carried on by Australian Tom Savige, gathered more than 25 synonyms an album titled Plantae who taught himself oriental scripts over the years! Icones Japonicae (RHS, in order to better understand the Lindley Library). treatment of Chinese and Japanese cultivar names. uncommon nowadays and to give the impression of novelty retailers The International Camellia Register sometimes resort to renaming existing was completed by Tom Savige and plants. Consequently plants sold as eventually published by the ICS in 1993 in ‘Golden Anniversary’ might prove to two volumes containing a synonymised be ‘Jury’s Yellow’, ‘Gwenneth Morey’ or list of 32,000 published cultivar names ‘Dahlohnega’. and including the origins, history and morphological characters of each plant. In a reversal of the renaming of early An appendix was provided of 9,000 Chinese introductions to Europe, oriental cultivar names, equating their Western cultivars such as ‘ presentation in Japanese or Chinese Ice’, ‘Desire’ and ‘Anticipation’ are being characters with transliterated versions sold in China as ‘Bingshanmei’ (‘冰山美’), in Latin script. A second supplement ‘Xinyuan’ (‘心愿’) and ‘Qiwang’ (‘祈望’). was produced by New Zealander Neville Haydon in 2011 and in the same year The inclusion in hybridisation the whole Register was put online by programmes of recently discovered Professor Gianmario Motta and his team species such as C. azalea, which at the University of Milan. produces flowers year-round, as well as tropical species with yellow flowers, Despite these advances, nomenclatural promises to provide fresh impetus to challenges still abound. New camellia camellia breeding. The registration and cultivars bred from traditional characterisation of a new generation genetic stock that display genuinely of camellia cultivars is an international different characteristics are becoming effort the ICS is happy to lead. ■ HORTAX 11 horticultural taxonomy group CPT News ■

Border control: the EU in your garden

RHS Head of Horticultural Taxonomy John David summarises proposed new legislation

12 ■ June 2014

ver the past year a in Annex 1 would have a quasi- set of proposed PBR approach, which would be regulations that costly and a considerable burden Oaffect cultivated to those registering the variety. plants has emerged from the For anything not in Annex 1, there EU Commission. This is not was a requirement for an Officially a coincidence, as some of Recognised Description (ORD), the regulations are part of a although it was not clear from larger package of measures the text how much detail would designed to improve consumer be necessary to provide an ORD. protection and food quality, Annex 1 largely applied to crop under the banner of “smarter plants, but did not recognise that rules for safer food”. some crop plants have ornamental varieties. There was a further The Plant Reproductive concern that the regulations would Material regulation apply to National Plant Collection Holders and potentially undermine The proposal with potentially the their valuable conservation work. most impact on cultivated plants is the Plant Reproductive Material The regulation was published regulation, which became widely in May 2013. From the outset it but misleadingly known as the was clear that the authorities had seed law. This was designed to no idea of how many cultivated ensure reliability and consistency plants could be affected, as of quality for plants propagated was demonstrated when it was for sale or exchange between revealed to them that there are professional operators. It was never over 70,000 plants listed in RHS the intention to control exchanges Plant Finder alone. Working with of plants between individuals or others in the horticultural industry, small-scale movement of plant with colleagues in Defra and with material, although that was a major like-minded organisations in other concern for many. European countries, the RHS was able to put amendments into The means of control was to be the legislation by the December through a requirement that any 2013 deadline. In the end, both EU plant variety in trade should be Parliament committees handling registered with a central body, the legislation rejected it outright planned to be the CPVO in at their meetings in January 2014. Angers, and also through national This was followed by a vote in the offices. This registration system full Parliament in March, which was similar to that used for Plant likewise overwhelmingly rejected Breeders’ Rights (PBR), without the legislation. The Council of any of the protection offered by Ministers then recommended

photo PBR, and would, no doubt, have that the EU Commission redraft brought in a further system of the regulation. This is not likely . rhs rules for naming to add to the to take place until much later in

/

tim systems laid out by the ICNCP and 2014; we hope that this will give

sandall for Statutory naming under UPOV. us an opportunity to feed into the There were to be two levels of process when the Commission

. registration. Those species listed begins work on it again.

HORTAX 13 horticultural taxonomy group CPT News ■

The Invasive Alien Species The Nagoya Protocol (IAS) Regulation The third piece of legislation This was passed by the EU to affect horticulture is the Parliament at the end of implementation of the Nagoya April 2014 and is set to come Protocol on Access and Benefit into force early next year. It Sharing. This is an international aims to introduce common agreement, following on measures against invasive Rosa from the Convention on non-native species across the rugosa, a Biological Diversity, which was whole of the European Union, frequently passed in 2010 but requires recognising that a problem cultivated signatory governments to in one country can easily species of enact legislation to enforce the spread to others and that Asian origin provisions of the agreement. common action is required already listed The relevant legislation was to control problem species. as a Schedule passed by the EU Parliament The strictest level of control is 9 invasive in in September last year and a total ban on possession of England and is likely to come into force a species, and this will apply Wales. Photo. RHS, either late this year or early in to any species listed as being Lindley Library. 2015. At the same time, the of “Union concern”. Other UK Government has been controls would apply and these ensuring that relevant species are looking at implementing the will be mandatory on member controlled in their territories. These lists regulation in the UK, in terms states. The Commission will are likely to have more species on them. of monitoring use of genetic now begin work on preparing In addition the legislation also focuses on resources and deciding the list, which will need to be pathway controls and with horticulture penalties for breaches of the agreed by member states. being a major pathway, we can expect regulation. The main provisions more pressure in this direction. of the EU legislation relate to It is widely stated that monitoring and controlling horticulture is the main The correct naming of invasive plants the use of genetic resources pathway of introduction of IAS, remains a problem with any legislation from other countries and but much depends upon what and one which sits on the boundary ensuring that such genetic you define as invasive; some between the two relevant codes, the resources that are used have would include any species that ICN and the ICNCP. Added to which are been obtained in accordance has managed to establish itself the problems that arise from a poor with the Nagoya Protocol and in the wild in that category. understanding of the identification and relevant national legislation. While there is a risk that some circumscription of these plants amongst It places on users of genetic garden plants may find their those who will have to enforce the rules. resources a requirement to way onto the list, given the These two issues, when taken with the carry out due diligence on any cost and administrative burden broad definition of “species” to include material they use and to be associated with a species of any , variety, form, selection able to show that it has been Union concern, it is not likely (i.e. cultivar) or hybrid including that obtained and used legitimately. that many garden plants will be species as a parent, will have significant It also proposes mechanisms listed, although it could include implications for horticulture. This could to assist with this, including some of the more rampant mean that perfectly innocuous cultivated promoting “good practice aquatics. Member states will plants would come within the scope of protocols” and establishing have the option to prepare the regulation simply because they are reference collections with lists of national or regional derived from a listed species. For these plants that are available for concern, which they can reasons the IAS legislation should be use in accordance with the share with adjacent member of concern to anyone who grows or Protocol. ■ states to request assistance in propagates cultivated plants. 14 ■ June 2014 photo . rhs

Recent publications in /

tim cultivated plant taxonomy sandall

The following is a selection of some . recently published books of relevance to the taxonomy of cultivated plants. Please let us know if there are works you wish to see included in the next issue of CPT News. In addition, it is hoped future editions might also feature book reviews, so be in touch if there is work of yours you would like to be covered.

Armitage, J.D., Edwards, D. & Pulsatilla vulgaris subsp. grandis. See Recent Publications, left. Lancaster, N. (eds) (2014) The Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs. Royal Horticultural Society: London. Clayton, D. & Cribb, P. (2013). The Genus About Hortax Calanthe. Natural History Publications in association with Kew Publishing: Hortax, formed in 1988, is a small committee of Borneo. European plant taxonomists and horticulturists with a professional interest in the classification and Grey-Wilson, C. (2014). Pasque- nomenclature of cultivated plants. flowers. The Genus Pulsatilla. A Guide for Gardeners, Horticulturists and The committee meets to discuss topics of relevance to Botanists. The Charlotte-Louise Press: the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Norfolk. Plants (ICNCP) and seeks to find solutions to the plentiful problems presented by humanity’s attempts to de Jong, P. & Kolster, H. (2013). classify the plants it grows. Euonymus, een kleurrijk geslacht. KNNV Publishing: Zeist. Members Jin, X. and Zhang, Q. (eds) (2014). Proceedings of the VI International James Armitage (Chair) Symposium on the Taxonomy of Saskia Bodegom Cultivated Plants. Acta Horticulturae Chris Brickell 1035. Phil Clayton Natalie Iwanycki Lee, J. (2013). Landscape Plants of Myra Johnson (Secretary) Arabia. Gilgamesh Publishing Ltd: Sabina Knees London. Tony Lord Valéry Malécot Rammeloo, A. (ed) (2014). Hamamelis Victoria Matthews Cultivar Names – Checklist 2014. Lesley McCarthy Arboretum Kalmthjout: Antwerp. Sharon McDonald Elizabeth Scott Shaw, J. & Griffits, H. (2014). Sander’s Tim Upson List of Orchid Hybrids. Royal Horticultural Society: London. www.hortax.org.uk [email protected] HORTAX 15 horticultural taxonomy group