The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature is the set of rules according to which plants are given their formal botanical names (scientific names). These names are sometimes called 'Latin' names. It specifies the standards and forms of names given to each taxon of plants recognised in botany. On 1 May1753 the publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus marked the formal start date of planttaxonomy according to the code. The code is maintained by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. There have been several versions of the code, the most recent is the 'St Louis code' which was adopted in 1999; this superceeds the earlier versions.
Botanical nomenclature is independent of zoological and bacteriological nomenclature. It follows the same general principles as the other two codes however, including the use of a binomial name for each species. For a general account of the use of scientific names across botany, zoology and bacteriology, see binomial nomenclature.
The code calls for the material from which a taxon is described, and on which a taxon is based, to be deposited and preserved in a herbarium.
External links
the 1999 St. Louis code (http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/nomenclature/code/SaintLouis/0000St.Luistitle.htm)
the 1993 Tokyo code (http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/nomenclature/code/tokyo-e)
The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants.
The ICBN sets the formal starting date of plantnomenclature at 1 May 1753, the publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus (or at later dates for specified groups and ranks).
There are special provisions in the ICBN for some of these groups, as there are for fossils.
The name of a taxon must be in Latin, it must not be identical with a name already published before, and it must conform to the intended rank of the taxon (please refer to the ICBN for the definition of ranks).
In special cases several other rules of the ICBN have to be followed, and all taxonomists should know the entire text of the ICBN (1993) before they publish their first new name.
ICBN 1994 International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Tokyo Code), Greuter, W., Barrie, F. R., Burdet, H. M., Chaloner, W. G., Demoulin, V., Hawksworth, D. L., Jørgensen, P. M., Nicolson, D. H., Silva, P. C., Trehane, P., and McNeill, J. (eds.), Adopted by the Fifteenth International Botanical Congress, Yokohama, August-September 1993, Regnum Vegetabile 131.
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