Plant Names

Scientific names for all Australian plants – APNI and APC

The Australian National Herbarium, as part of the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, maintains comprehensive databases for plant names in Australia.

• The Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) provides detailed information on scientific names but DOES NOT recommend any particular taxonomy or nomenclature.
  
  
• The Australian Plant Census (APC) is a work in progress, providing a nationally agreed list of current scientific names endorsed by the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH). Not all plant groups have yet been treated for the APC.

Scientific names for selected plant groups

• Names for eucalypts - from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
• Catalogue of Australian Mosses - the name and publication references for mosses.
• Checklist of Australian Lichens - the names and publication references for lichens.
• Census of Freshwater Algae in Australia - maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
• Australian Marine Algae Name Index (AMANI)
• Census of Plants in Australian Botanic Gardens - 1992 listings for major botanic gardens.

Scientific names for selected regions

• Census of the Vascular Plants, Hornworts, Liverworts and Slime Moulds of the ACT.

Family names

The plant family into which genera are placed can vary, with different concepts being adopted by different botanists. Many people are accustomed to the family concept published by R.K. Brummitt in 1992 and used widely in Australia. The Australian Plant Census has adopted a different family concept, and the two tables below attempt to translate those two concepts with recent changes highlighted in yellow.:

• Plant families used in APC listed alphabetically by 'old family' (as used by Brummitt)
• Plant families used in APC listed alphabetically by genus

Informal names or phrasenames (phrase names)

Informal names have become increasingly prominent over the last 20 or so years in Australian literature on plants, particularly in Censuses, floras and checklists. The major reason for this has been the improvement and expansion of lists of protected plants, now often deemed "plants of conservation significance", which have become an important adjunct to legislation.

They often look like this:   Pterostylis sp. Sandheath (D.Murfet 3190) R.J.Bates

More information on informal names or phrasenames can be found here

Australian Common Names

• Database of Common Names of Australian Plants - not complete (Frames version)

Australian Cultivar Names

• List of registered cultivars of Australian native plants.
• The Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA)

Simple explanation of plant naming

• Plant naming explained as part of CHAH's AVH help pages

Australian Plant Breeders Rights

• For Information about Australian Plant Breeders Rights - http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/pbr/index.shtml
• For PBR database search - http://pbr.ipaustralia.plantbreeders.gov.au/
• See also Plant Varieties Journal

Cultivars - International

• International Registration Authorities (IRAs) by genus: http://www.ishs.org/icra/index.htm
• An explanation of the work of IRAs may be found on: http://www.ishs.org/icra/index.htm

Worldwide Plant Names

• Find information about the scientific publication of plant names worldwide - International Plant Names Index (IPNI).
• International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, (VIENNA CODE) adopted by the Seventeenth International Botanical Congress Vienna, Austria, July 2005:
  http://www.ibot.sav.sk/icbn/main.htm