History and Achievements

During 1985 the profile of cultivated plant taxonomy and nomenclature was raised by two important conferences:

'Infraspecific Classification of Wild and Cultivated Plants': Oxford, England
The First International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants: Wageningen, The Netherlands

One result of this increased interest was the formation of the Horticultural Taxonomy Group (HORTAX) in March 1988. Since then the Group has been active in many areas related to the nomenclature and taxonomy of cultivated plants. A brief summary of our activities is given here in reverse chronological order.

2007

The HORTAX Guide to Plant Names, after much editing and expanding, was added to the Web site as a PDF in March 2007.
Workshop/Open Meeting to discuss proposed changes to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP) was jointly hosted at Wisley by HORTAX and the RHS Advisory Panel on Nomenclature & Taxonomy (APONAT) on 26 February 2007.
The Fifth International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants, co-sponsored by HORTAX, was held in Wageningen, The Netherlands, in October. Several members of HORTAX attended and presented talks or posters, among which was a poster on HORTAX activities.
The International Association for Cultivated Plant Taxonomy (IACPT) was finally launched in Wageningen during the October symposium. This association, intended to serve the needs of those interested in the wider field of Cultivated Plant Taxonomy, owes its existence to the efforts of a small group of people, some of them members or past members of HORTAX.

2005

The HORTAX Web site was transferred from Hampshire County Council to International Society of Horticultural Society (ISHS) host, thus establishing closer links, in April 2005.
Workshop: 'Cracking the Code - the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP)' jointly hosted at Wisley by HORTAX and the RHS Advisory Panel on Nomenclature & Taxonomy (APONAT) on 28 November 2005.
Publication of HORTAX leaflet: 'The Names of Garden Plants' - November 2005.

2004

First public draft released of the HORTAX booklet: 'Plant Names - a Guide for Horticulturists, Nurserymen, Gardeners and Students'. The production of such a "plain man's guide" had long been one of the aims of HORTAX.
The Proceedings of the Toronto Symposium, edited by Davidson & Trehane, were published by ISHS as Acta Horticulturae 634.
A new edition of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants was published as Acta Horticulturae 647. As with previous editions, several important amendments resulted from input by members of HORTAX.

2003

Workshop: 'Plant Names in Print' jointly hosted at Wisley by HORTAX and the RHS Advisory Panel on Nomenclature & Taxonomy (APONAT) on 16 October 2003.

2002

Workshop: 'Towards the simpler, more accurate and stable naming of cultivated plants' jointly hosted at Wisley by HORTAX and the RHS Advisory Panel on Nomenclature & Taxonomy (APONAT) on 5 March 2002.
The Fourth International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants, co-sponsored by HORTAX, was held in Toronto, Canada in August. Members of HORTAX attended and contributed.

2001

Part 5 of HORTAX NEWS was published on 31 May 2001.
The HORTAX Web site was launched in June 2001, hosted by Hampshire County Council, the owners of The Hillier Arboretum.

2000

A meeting of HORTAX was held at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (now NIAB) to discuss Plant Breeders' Rights issues.

1999

The Proceedings of the Edinburgh Symposium, edited by Susyn Andrews, Alan Leslie & Crinan Alexander, were published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants.

1998

Part 4 of HORTAX NEWS was published on 29 April 1998.
The Third International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants, organised by HORTAX, was held in Edinburgh on behalf of RBG Edinburgh, RBG Kew and the Royal Horticultural Society. This was attended by 168 delegates from 30 countries.

1997

Part 3 of HORTAX NEWS was published on 16 May 1997.
HORTAX members were heavily involved in planning and preparation for the 1998 symposium.

1996

Part 2 of HORTAX NEWS was published on 19 February 1996.

1995

A new edition of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants was published comprising some 196 pages, including 12 Appendices replacing the 32-page 1980 edition. Much of the content was developed from HORTAX proposals.

1994

The Royal Horticultural Society set up the Plant Finder Nomenclature Advisory Group, later known as the RHS Advisory Panel on Nomenclature & Taxonomy (APONAT), subsequently the RHS Advisory Committee on Nomenclature & Taxonomy (ACONAT), with a number of HORTAX members invited to participate. The aim of the Advisory Committee is to consider individual problems of plant nomenclature in the publications of the Society, rather than deal with general principles that are dealt with by HORTAX.
In May, members of HORTAX met with representatives from the British seed trade to discuss nomenclatural issues in seed marketing.
A further meeting with VKC member Wilbert Hetterscheid was held in June to hear proposals on the culton concept.
The Second International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants was held in Seattle, USA in August. Almost all HORTAX members attended and most presented papers and posters.
The IUBS Commission for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants designates HORTAX NEWS as the principal vehicle for publishing any proposals to modify the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.
As a result of ad hoc symposium discussion groups, NORTAX (consisting of taxonomists and interested parties from the USA and Canada) was founded and their first newsletter NORTAX NEWS was issued in June 1995.

1993

A questionnaire on the holdings of cultivated plant specimens was dispatched to all the herbaria in the British Isles, and a request was also published in the BSBI News.
Part 1 of HORTAX NEWS, an occasional newsletter from HORTAX, was published on 10 December 1993.

1992

HORTAX presented its final proposal for revising the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants, to the IUBS Commission for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants and this was widely circulated to enlist constructive comment.

1990

A contingent from HORTAX attended the ISHS International Horticultural Congress in Florence.
A meeting between the members of HORTAX and Vaste Keurings Commissie (VKC), their Dutch counterparts, took place at Kew in December to consider making a joint proposal for a fully revised ICNCP.

1988

HORTAX was founded in March as a small independent committee of taxonomists and horticulturists to provide a forum for discussion on issues of cultivated plant nomenclature and taxonomy, and with the specific remit to make proposals for a long-overdue revision of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP).
A first draft of a revision of ICNCP was privately circulated for comment.

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