Author citation (botany)

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In botanical nomenclature, author citation is the way of citing the person or group of people who validly published a botanical name, i.e. who first published the name while fulfilling the formal requirements as specified by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN). [1] In cases where a species is no longer in its original generic placement (i.e. a new combination of genus and specific epithet), both the authority for the original genus placement and that for the new combination are given (the former in parentheses).

Contents

In botany, it is customary (though not obligatory) to abbreviate author names according to a recognised list of standard abbreviations.

There are differences between the botanical code and the normal practice in zoology. In zoology, the publication year is given following the author names and the authorship of a new combination is normally omitted. A small number of more specialized practices also vary between the recommendations of the botanical and zoological codes.

Introduction

In biological works, particularly those dealing with taxonomy and nomenclature but also in ecological surveys, it has long been the custom that full citations to the place where a scientific name was published are omitted, but a short-hand is used to cite the author of the name, at least the first time this is mentioned. The author name is frequently not sufficient information, but can help to resolve some difficulties. Problems include:

Rules and recommendations for author citations in botany are covered by Articles 46–50 of the International Code of Nomenclature (ICN). [1] As stated in Article 46 of the botanical Code, in botany it is normal to cite only the author of the taxon name as indicated in the published work, even though this may differ from the stated authorship of the publication itself.

Basic citation

The simplest form of author citation in botany applies when the name is cited in its original rank and its original genus placement (for binomial names and below), where the original author (or authors) are the only name/s cited, and no parentheses are included.

The Latin term "et" or the ampersand symbol "&" can be used when two authors jointly publish a name. [1] Recommendation 46C.1

In many cases the author citation will consist of two parts, the first in parentheses, e.g.:

This form of author citation indicates that the epithet was originally published in another genus (in this case as Cistus coridifolius) by the first author, Dominique Villars (indicated by the enclosing parentheses), but moved to the present genus Helianthemum by the second (revising) author (António Xavier Pereira Coutinho). Alternatively, the revising author changed the rank of the taxon, for example raising it from subspecies to species (or vice versa), from subgenus to Section, etc. [1] Article 49 (Again, the latter is in contrast to the situation in zoology, where no authorship change is recognized within family-group, genus-group, and species-group names, thus a change from subspecies to species, or subgenus to genus, is not associated with any change in cited authorship.)

Abbreviation

When citing a botanical name including its author, the author's name is often abbreviated. To encourage consistency, the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants ICN recommends [1] Recommendation 46A, Note 1 the use of Brummitt & Powell's Authors of Plant Names (1992), where each author of a botanical name has been assigned a unique abbreviation. [2] These standard abbreviations can be found at the International Plant Names Index. [3]

For example, in:

the abbreviation "L." refers to the famous botanist Carl Linnaeus who described this genus on p. 492 of his Species Plantarum in 1753.

the abbreviation "Cham." refers to the botanist Adelbert von Chamisso and "Schldl." to the botanist Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal; these authors jointly described this species (and placed it in the genus Rubus ) in 1827.

Usage of the term "ex"

When "ex" is a component of the author citation, it denotes the fact that an initial description did not satisfy the rules for valid publication, but that the same name was subsequently validly published by a second author or authors (or by the same author in a subsequent publication). [1] Article 46.4 However, if the subsequent author makes clear that the description was due to the earlier author (and that the earlier author accepted the name), then no "ex" is used, and the earlier author is listed alone. For example:

indicates that Josef Schultes validly published this name (in 1824 in this instance), but his description attributed the name to Franz Sieber (in botany, the author of the earlier name precedes the later, valid one; in zoology, this sequence, where present, is reversed).

Examples

The following forms of citation are all equally correct:

As indicated above, either the original or the revising author may involve multiple words, as per the following examples from the same genus:

Usage of the ancillary term "in"

The ancillary term "in" is sometimes employed to indicate that the authorship of the published work is different from that of the name itself, for example:

Article 46.2 Note 1 of the Botanical Code indicates that in such cases, the portion commencing "in" is in fact a bibliographic citation and should not be used without the place of publication being included, thus the preferred form of the name+author alone in this example would be Verrucaria aethiobola Wahlenb., not Verrucaria aethiobola Wahlenb. in Acharius. (This is in contrast to the situation in zoology, where either form is permissible, and in addition a date would normally be appended.)

Authorship of subsidiary ranks

According to the botanical Code it is only necessary to cite the author for the lowest rank of the taxon in question, i.e. for the example subspecies given above (Helianthemum apenninum subsp. rothmaleri) it is not necessary (or even recommended) to cite the authority of the species ("Mill.") as well as that of the subspecies,[ citation needed ] though this is found in some sources. The only exception to this rule is where the nominate variety or subspecies of a species is cited, which automatically will inherit the same authorship of its parent taxon, [1] Article 26.1 thus:

Emending authors

As described in Article 47 of the botanical code, on occasion either the diagnostic characters or the circumscription of a taxon may be altered ("emended") sufficiently that the attribution of the name to the original taxonomic concept as named is insufficient. The original authorship attribution is not altered in these cases, but a taxonomic statement can be appended to the original authorship using the abbreviation "emend." (for emendavit), as per these examples given in the Code:

(In the second example, "excl. var.", abbr. for exclusis varietatibus, indicates that this taxonomic concept excludes varieties which other workers have subsequently included.)

Other indications

Other indications which may be encountered appended to scientific name authorship include indications of nomenclatural or taxonomic status (e.g. "nom. illeg.", "sensu Smith", etc.), prior taxonomic status for taxa transferred between hybrid and non-hybrid status ("(pro sp.)" and "(pro hybr.)", see Article 50 of the botanical Code), and more. Technically these do not form part of the author citation but represent supplementary text, however they are sometimes included in "authority" fields in less well constructed taxonomic databases. Some specific examples given in Recommendations 50A–F of the botanical Code include:

for a taxon name published without an acceptable description or diagnosis

for a homonym—indicating in this instance that Carl Peter Thunberg's "Lindera" is not the same taxon as that named previously by Michel Adanson, the correspondence of the two names being coincidental

as above, but two prior (and quite possibly unrelated) homonyms noted, the first by Ludwig Reichenbach, the second by Ferdinand von Mueller

for a taxon name rejected (normally in favour of a later usage) and placed on the list of rejected names forming an appendix to the botanical Code (the alternative name conserved over the rejected name would be cited as "nom. cons.")

this is the preferred syntax for a name that has been misapplied by a subsequent author or authors ("auct." or "auctt.") such that it actually represents a different taxon from the one to which Vahl's name correctly applies

indicating that the epithet as originally published was spelled solomonensis, but the spelling here is in an altered form, presumably for Code compliance or some other legitimate reason.

See also

Specific to botany
More general

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binomial nomenclature</span> Species naming system

In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature, also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name, or a scientific name; more informally it is also historically called a Latin name. In the ICZN, the system is also called binominal nomenclature, "binomi'N'al" with an "N" before the "al", which is not a typographic error, meaning "two-name naming system".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taxon</span> Grouping of biological populations

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<i>International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants</i> Code of scientific nomenclature

The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "traditionally treated as algae, fungi, or plants". It was formerly called the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN); the name was changed at the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne in July 2011 as part of the Melbourne Code which replaced the Vienna Code of 2005.

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In botanical nomenclature, autonyms are automatically created names, as regulated by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants that are created for certain subdivisions of genera and species, those that include the type of the genus or species. An autonym might not be mentioned in the publication that creates it as a side-effect. Autonyms "repeat unaltered" the genus name or species epithet of the taxon being subdivided, and no other name for that same subdivision is validly published. For example, Rubus subgenus Eubatus is not validly published, and the subgenus is known as Rubus subgen. Rubus.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Principle of priority</span> Principle of botanical and zoological nomenclature

Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or animal. There are two aspects to this:

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taxonomic rank</span> Level in a taxonomic hierarchy

In biology, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system of biological classification (taxonomy) consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain. While older approaches to taxonomic classification were phenomenological, forming groups on the basis of similarities in appearance, organic structure and behaviour, methods based on genetic analysis have opened the road to cladistics.

<i>Nomen illegitimum</i> Latin term meaning "illegitimate name", used mainly in botany.

Nomen illegitimum is a technical term used mainly in botany. It is usually abbreviated as nom. illeg. Although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants uses Latin terms as qualifiers for taxon names, the definition of each term is in English rather than Latin. The Latin abbreviations are widely used by botanists and mycologists.

In zoological nomenclature, emendations are intentional alterations made to the spelling of taxon names. In bacteriological nomenclature, emendations are made to the circumscription of a taxon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of scientific naming</span>

This is a list of terms and symbols used in scientific names for organisms, and in describing the names. For proper parts of the names themselves, see List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names. Note that many of the abbreviations are used with or without a stop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera</span> Taxonomic database

The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG) is a taxonomic database which attempts to cover published genus names for all domains of life, from 1758 in zoology up to the present, arranged in a single, internally consistent taxonomic hierarchy, for the benefit of Biodiversity Informatics initiatives plus general users of biodiversity (taxonomic) information. In addition to containing just over 500,000 published genus name instances as at May 2023, the database holds over 1.7 million species names, although this component of the data is not maintained in as current or complete state as the genus-level holdings. IRMNG can be queried online for access to the latest version of the dataset and is also made available as periodic snapshots or data dumps for import/upload into other systems as desired. The database was commenced in 2006 at the then CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research in Australia and, since 2016, has been hosted at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Belgium.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McNeill, J.; Barrie, F.R.; Buck, W.R.; Demoulin, V.; Greuter, W.; Hawksworth, D.L.; Herendeen, P.S.; Knapp, S.; Marhold, K.; Prado, J.; Prud'homme Van Reine, W.F.; Smith, G.F.; Wiersema, J.H.; Turland, N.J. (2012). International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code) adopted by the Eighteenth International Botanical Congress Melbourne, Australia, July 2011. Vol. Regnum Vegetabile 154. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag KG. ISBN   978-3-87429-425-6. Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  2. ↑ Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E. (1992), Authors of Plant Names, Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, ISBN   978-1-84246-085-6
  3. ↑ "Author Query Page". International Plant Names Index. Archived from the original on February 7, 2006. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
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