ISHS Acta Horticulturae 413: II International Symposium on Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants
THE CULTON CONCEPT: SETTING THE STAGE FOR AN UNAMBIGUOUS TAXONOMY OF CULTIVATED PLANTS |
| Authors: | W.L.A. Hetterscheid, W.A. Brandenburg |
| Abstract:
The primacy of botanical nomenclature as ruled by the ICBN (International Code of Botanical Nomenclature) has always overshadowed the nomenclature of cultivated plants and it is often stated that the latter is a subset of the former. Since nomenclature is a corollary of proposed classifications, which themselves are based on a taxonomists' systematic thinking, it would seem that the systematic of cultivated plants and wild plants are the same. They are not. Classifying biodiversity resulting from evolution and classifying artificial diversity resulting from man manipulating and changing organisms at his will, ought to be subject of totally different systematic principles. The use of the taxon concept for systematic groups of wild plants and cultivated plants is the cause of the confusion. In order to clarify the position of systematic thought in the taxonomy of cultivated plants a new concept has been proposed, viz. the culton (Hetterscheid, 1994; Hetterscheid & Brandenburg, 1995). The culton is a general concept for "systematic groups of cultivated plants" and its consistent use will avoid further confusion with taxa, in use for systematic groups of wild plants. It will also guide to a more consistent and stable nomenclature of cultivated plants. | |
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