(284) Proposal to add a Note after Article H.9.1 to clarify that a statement of the names of parent species is sufficient for valid publication of the name of a nothogenus

Abstract

A number of nothogenera in the past and in recent years have been published with a statement of the species that make up the cross rather than just the parent genera. A recent example is the name ×Leontoroides B. Bock (in Bull. Soc. Bot. Centre-Ouest 42: 274. 2012), which was published as “× Leontoroides kaiseri (J.Murray) B.Bock - comb. nov. - [Leontodon hispidus L. × Scorzoneroides pyrenaica (Gouan) Holub]”. Although there is no separate entry for the nothogenus and parent genera, the nothogeneric name has been considered validly published simultaneously with the nothospecies combination, because the parent generic names are part of the parent species names cited. From the statement of the parent species and the condensed formula of the nothogenus there can be no doubt that the parent genera are Leontodon L. and Scorzoneroides Moench. Although we stress that this is bad practice, it seems unnecessarily strict to consider such names as not validly published, forcing the authors to publish both names again with an explicit statement of the parent genera. Because this mostly applies to horticultural names, there is often little interest or incentive to publish such names, so they remain technically not validly published. Indication of a type, even though not explicitly required for monotypic genera in Art. 40.3 of the Shenzhen Code (Turland & al. in Regnum Veg. 159. 2018), is important for the application of a non-hybrid generic name. The equivalent for nothogenera does not apply, however, because whichever species within the parent genera are postulated, the application of the nothogenus remains the same (Art. H.9 Note 1). Therefore, this proposed Note will have no nomenclatural impact, whereas not allowing this will require the republication of numerous nothogenera and, because this issue has not been routinely recorded in the International Plant Names Index (IPNI; https://www.ipni.org/) or elsewhere, it will be destabilizing to require that retrospectively. “Note 1bis. A statement of the names of the parent species of a nothogenus, or of the names of the parent species of any of its included taxa, is sufficient to validly publish the name of a nothogenus, if the full names of all parent genera appear among the species names, when there is no separate statement of the names of the parent genera.”