OAK CULTIVAR NAME REGISTRATION

OAK CULTIVAR NAME REGISTRATION

Prepared by Piers Trehane, Cultivar Registrar for Oaks

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The International Oak Society was appointed as International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) for the genus Quercus by the Commission for Nomenclature and Cultivar Registration of the International Society for Horticultural Science (I.S.H.S.) in 1998. The ICRA system aims to promote stability in the naming of cultivated plants by promoting lists of authenticated names in a number of important groups of plants which are commonly cultivated.

While the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (I.C.B.N.) deals with the rules for forming the Latin names of plants, the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (I.C.N.C.P.) deals with the naming of two categories, the cultivar and the Group - i.e., those categories of plants that arise and are maintained by mankind.

The primary functions of an ICRA are (a) to register cultivar and Group names in the denomination class for which they have accepted responsibility and to ensure their establishment, (b) to publish full lists of cultivar and Group names in that denomination class, and (c) to maintain records, in as great a detail as is practical, of the origin, characteristics, and history of each cultivar and Group in that denomination class. All ICRAs are contracted to operate within the provisions of the current I.C.N.C.P.

It is not the function of an ICRA to (a) conduct trials, (b) judge if one cultivar or Group is more meritorious or useful than another or (c) judge distinctness of cultivars or Groups. ICRAs record cultivar and Group names, not the cultivars or Groups themselves, so one does not register a new cultivar with an ICRA, one registers their names.

The "denomination class" is that taxonomic unit in which names (technically, epithets) may not be repeated. In our case, Quercus L. is taken to include other genera such as Cyclobalanopsis Oerst. and Cyclobalanus (Endl.) Oerst. although in some parts of the world these are accepted as separate genera .

Now that the new (2004) I.C.N.C.P. is published, the Society is open to accept cultivar name registrations. The Registration Form may be freely downloaded and saved by anyone. The accompanying notes for guidance are designed to be helpful for those not familiar with what is required in filling in the form.

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To find out more about International Cultivar Registration Authorities (ICRAs), click here.

To get details of the current International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (I.C.N.C.P.), click here.