International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (Melbourne Code)
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1 International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code) Adopted by the Eighteenth International Botanical Congress Melbourne, Australia, July 2011 Prepared and edited by J. MCNEILL, Chairman F. R. BARRIE, W. R. BUCK, V. DEMOULIN, W. GREUTER, D. L. HAWKSWORTH, P. S. HERENDEEN, S. KNAPP, K. MARHOLD, J. PRADO, W. F. PRUD'HOMME VAN REINE, G. F. SMITH, J. H. WIERSEMA, Members N. J. TURLAND, Secretary of the Editorial Committee Koeltz Scientific Books 2012 The printed and only official version of the Code has been published as International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code). Regnum Vegetabile 154. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag KG. ISBN 978-3-87429- 425-6 2 PREFACE The XVIII International Botanical Congress held in Melbourne, Australia in July 2011 made a number of very significant changes in the rules governing what has long been termed botanical nomenclature, although always covering algae and fungi as well as green plants. This edition of the Code embodies these decisions; the first of which that must be noted is the change in its title. Since the VII International Botanical Congress in Stockholm in 1950, successive editions of the Code have been published as the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, commonly abbreviated as ICBN. In Melbourne, reflecting the view, particularly amongst mycologists, that the word “Botanical” was misleading and could imply that the Code covered only green plants and excluded fungi and diverse algal lineages, it was agreed that the name be changed to International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. In referring to the Code under its new title, we will use the abbreviation ICN. The rules that govern the scientific naming of algae, fungi, and green plants are revised at Nomenclature Section meetings at successive International Botanical Congresses. As noted above, this edition of the Code embodies the decisions of the XVIII Congress in Melbourne in 2011. It supersedes the Vienna Code, published six years ago subsequent to the XVII International Botanical Congress in Vienna, Austria and like its immediate predecessors; it is written entirely in (British) English. The Vienna Code was translated into Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish; it is therefore anticipated that the Melbourne Code, too, will become available in several languages. The Melbourne Code represents a much more substantial revision to the rules of nomenclature than has been the case with any other recent edition of the Code. This is not only due to the important changes accepted in Melbourne, but also because the Editorial Committee was instructed to re-organize the rules on valid publication of names in a more logical manner (see below), and took upon itself a more thorough examination of the overall clarity and consistency of the Code. However, despite this, the overall presentation and arrangement of the remaining text of the Melbourne Code remains broadly similar to that in the Vienna Code. A key is provided (pp. xxiii–xxviii) to the Articles, Notes, and Recommendations renumbered between the Vienna and Melbourne Codes. More strikingly, it was agreed in Melbourne that the Appendices (other than App. I on the nomenclature of hybrids) need no longer be published along with the main text, and indeed may be published only electronically. Consequently this volume comprises only the main text of the Code, that is the Preamble, Division I Principles, Division II Rules and Recommendations, Division III Provisions for the Governance of the Code, Appendix I Names of Hybrids, the Glossary, the Index of scientific names, and the Subject index. A separate volume comprising Appendices II–VIII will be published later, both as a printed volume and electronically. Appendices II–VI will cover conserved and rejected names and suppressed works as in the Vienna Code, but App. VII and VIII are new and reflect a decision of the Melbourne Congress to include in Appendices the binding decisions under Art. 38.4 of this Code on whether or not to treat a name as validly published when it is doubtful whether a descriptive statement satisfies the requirement for a “description or diagnosis” and those under Art. 53.5 on whether or not to treat names as homonyms when it is doubtful whether they or their epithets are sufficiently alike to be confused. In addition to the change in the title of the Code and the separation of the Appendices, there were five other major changes to the rules of nomenclature adopted in Melbourne: the acceptance of certain forms of electronic publication; the option of using English as an alternative to Latin for the descriptions or diagnoses of new taxa of non-fossil organisms; the requirement for registration as a prerequisite for valid publication of new names of fungi; the abolition of the provision for separate names for fungi with a pleomorphic life history; and the abandonment of the morphotaxon concept in the nomenclature of fossils. The Nomenclature Section approved overwhelmingly the series of proposals prepared by the Special Committee on Electronic Publication set up by the Vienna Congress in 2005 (see Chapman & al. in Taxon 59: 1853–1862. 2010). This means that it is no longer necessary for new names of plants, fungi, and algae (and designations of types) to appear in printed matter in order to be effectively published. As an alternative, publication online in Portable Document Format (PDF) in a publication with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) or International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is permitted. The Special Committee had proposed 1 January 2013 as the starting date for the new rules (the beginning of the year following the expected publication of this edition of the Code), but the Section believed implementation so important that it decided to bring the date forward to 1 January 2012. As this was ahead of publication of the Code and because of the significance of the change, a paper reporting the details of the decision and incorporating a draft of the new rules was published in September 2011 almost simultaneously in 17 journals, and has been translated from English into eight languages (see e.g. Knapp & al. in Taxon 60: 1498–1501. 2011). The provision for electronic publication by PDF in an online publication with an ISSN or ISBN is included in Art. 29, and the circumstances that do not constitute effective publication, both electronically and otherwise, are set out in Art. 30. In the case of electronic publication, these circumstances include the publication being a preliminary one, and any alterations made after effective publication. Article 31, dealing with the date of effective publication, includes matter peculiar to electronic publication. Recommendation 29A sets out a series of recommendations on best practice in electronic publishing, particularly with regard to 3 long-term archiving, and 12 new Examples are provided in Art. 29–31 addressing a number of situations that arise with electronic publication. The requirement that for valid publication of the name of a new taxon a Latin description or diagnosis be provided goes back to the Vienna Rules of 1906 (Briquet, Règles Int. Nomencl. Bot. 1906). It was not, however, a feature of the rival American Code of 1907 (Arthur & al. in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 34: 167–178. 1907) and so, when the schism was healed in 1930 at the V International Botanical Congress in Cambridge, U.K., the effective date was moved forward to 1 January 1935. Names of algae and fossils were initially exempt from the requirement; for the former it was later required from 1 January 1958, whereas for the latter, the first language restriction came at the Tokyo Congress of 1993, which specified that from 1 January 1996, the description or diagnosis must be in either English or Latin. A proposal was made to the Nomenclature Section in Melbourne to extend this requirement for names of fossils to names of fungi, but the Section decided to apply this rule to all organisms under the jurisdiction of the ICN and also decided that, like the rules on electronic publication, this more permissive provision would become effective on 1 January 2012. The general provisions are in Art. 39 (names in all groups being covered by Art. 39.2), whereas the special provisions for names of fossils are in Art. 43.1 and those of algae in Art. 44.1. Since 2004, the online database MycoBank (http://www.mycobank.org/) has become increasingly used by mycologists to register new fungal names and associated data, such as descriptions and illustrations. Upon registration, MycoBank issues a unique number, which can be cited in the publication where the name appears. This number is also used by the nomenclatural database Index Fungorum (http://www.indexfungorum.org/) and serves as a Life Science Identifier (LSID). Many journals, including Taxon, already require inclusion of this identifier for acceptance of papers with nomenclatural novelties involving fungi. The Congress in Melbourne decided to make mandatory for valid publication of a new fungal name published on or after 1 January 2013 “the citation in the protologue of the identifier issued by a recognized repository for the name” (see Art. 42). This rule applies to names of new taxa, new combinations, names at new ranks, and replacement names. Since the Brussels Congress in 1910, there has been provision for a separate name (or names) for the asexual (anamorph) state (or states) of fungi with a pleomorphic life cycle from that applicable to the sexual (teleomorph) state and to the whole fungus. The Brussels Rules (Briquet, Règles Int. Nomencl. Bot., ed. 2. 1912) specified that names given to states other than the sexual one (the “perfect state”) “have only a temporary value”, apparently anticipating a time when they would no longer be needed.