History and Achievements

The profile of taxonomy and nomenclature of cultivated plants was raised by two conferences held in 1985:

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

1988

HORTAX was founded in March as an autonomous group of taxonomists and horticulturists to provide a national 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 rules was privately circulated for 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.

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.

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.

1994

The Royal Horticultural Society set up the Plant Finder Nomenclature Advisory Group, now known as the RHS Advisory Panel on Nomenclature and Taxonomy with a number of HORTAX members invited to participate. The aim of the Advisory Panel is to consider individual problems of plant nomenclature in the publications of the Society, rather than deal with the 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.

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 the prior HORTAX proposals.

1996

1997

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.

1999

The Proceedings of the Edinburgh Symposium were published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

2000

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

2001

2002

The Fourth International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants, co-sponsored by HORTAX, was held in Toronto, Canada in August.