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  RE: [Aroid-l] Names for different forms?
From: "Alistair Hay" <ajmhay at hotmail.com> on 2007.03.16 at 01:06:55(15425)
I hestitate, with Wilbert and Gearoge's great experience present here, to suggest how to move forward! But only briefly lol. I don't mind being shot down in flames and will probabkly learn something useful as I am currently up to the armpits in cultivar registration for another group (Brugmansia)
Given that this has got off to false starts, I would strongly advocate not trying to create an all-encompassing system first off: that looks to me as though it would all fall over again. Adopt the KISS principle and get something hapening which can be improved in time.
Also remember that cultivar registration is voluntary: if the system created is onerous and boring to to comply with, people won't.
An often-encountered misunderstanding is that cultivar registration is equivalent to cultivar naming, It is not. A cultivar can be named (i.e. the name formally established) in almost any form of publication (bar newspapers and a few other things (see 2004 Code)). So if you name a cv in a printed nursery catalogue and there is even a one-word description of it, and the publication is dated, the name is established provided it meets some other technical requirements (which most cultivar epithets do). Registration simply means that the ICRA accepts that the cultivar has been properly named somewhere and has incorporated it into its Register (which can be nothing more elaborate than an excel spreadsheet or even a scrap-book!). The Registration process is there to assist the ICRA in gathering the information it is responsible for managing.
1. As ICRA for Aroids IAS sh/could (I suggest) devote some pages ("ICRA pages") at the back of Aroideana to the publication of new cultivar names (if this is not happening already - sorry, I am out of touch!). Later these pages can also be used to publish determinations on the validity of names where issues arise that need a decision.
A simple format for publishing a new cv is
Amorphophallus 'Wilbert's Surprise' [PHOTO]
Seed parent: A. titanum (un-named clone); Pollen parent: A. prainii (un-named clone)
Hybridiser: George W. Bush; Seedling Parent [if different from hybridiser]: Tony Blair
[OR Discoverer: John Howard (if the cultivar has in effect been 'found' - in the wild, as an accidental seedling, as a sport etc]
Origin: USA; Introduced: 2006
Salient features: Spathe xxx, etc etc (keeping this to the minimum necessary to capture the distinctive points). Note: this may evolve into the bulk of a registration form designed around different genera/tribes, but I suggest do this when the need arises and when you know exactky why it is needed rather than designing elaborate registration forms up front.
Name established: here [or if publishng a cultivar whose name is established elsewhere, give the reference.]
IMO this covers the key stuff to start with.
If this (or something sinmilar) is adopted it may encourage people to publish cultuvars in Aroideana rather than in obscure price lists printed off a home PC - which is currently permitted under the 2004 Code and is a $%^&#@ nuisance!.
2. An online Register is set up to, at first, accommodate the new cultivars published in Aroideana with the same information and pics, and to which are added all established cultivar names in Araceae as they are gathered up by the Registrar and anyone assisting over time!
The online registry includes the template for publishing new cvs in Aroideana (outlined above), and Aroid-L, IAS website and perhaps Dave;s Garden are used to announce the deadlines for submission of new cultivars for establishmens in Aroideana each year. As the designated ICRA you are, I believe, responsible fior providing this service to members and non-members alike.
This seems to me to be the minimum necessary to make this work. I have not discussed nomenclatural standards and other recomendations of the Code, in the belief that f you try to do it all perfectly at once it all just seems too much!
Apologes if you have been over all this already!!
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