Conserving Acacia Mill. with a conserved type. What happened in Vienna?

Abstract

AbstractThis note documents the events and conduct that led to the acceptance of Report 55 of the Permanent Committee for Spermatophyta concerning the conservation of Acacia Mill. with a new type. The procedures followed by the Nomenclature Section of the XVII th International Botanical Congress (IBC) held in Vienna, Austria, in July 2005, are also outlined and briefly described in accordance with the provisions of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) for dealing with committee reports. This controversial proposal to retypify Acacia Mill. from an African to an Australian type was accepted by the Committee for Spermatophyta, the General Committee, and the Nomenclature Section, a recommendation ratified by the final closing plenary session of the IBC. The ICBN emanating from the XVIIth IBC will include Acacia Mill., with a conserved type, in Appendix IIIA Nomina generica conservanda et rejicienda. For those who choose to follow the traditional classification system that applies the name Acacia in a broad sense to a heterogeneous assemblage of species comprising a number of subgenera, this decision holds no implications at generic level. However, should the alternative classification which segregates a broadly defined Acacia into a number of genera be followed, then the name Acacia would apply in a strict sense to the mainly Australian wattles (previously Acacia subg. Phyllodineae—now A. subg. Acacia—of the traditional system.)