On the need for revision of some names of plant health malfunctions and their categorisation

Abstract

The development of branches dealing with plant health science and plant health care proceeded more or less in three separate disciplines dealing with microbial plant pathogens (plant pathology), animal pests (applied entomology, etc.) and weeds (weed science). It resulted in disunity in concepts of basic terms such as disease, disorder and injury, in different approaches to categorisation and naming of the main types of plant health problems, and in ambivalence in the use of names for plant malfunctions of abiotic origin. Different terms are used with varying frequency for denoting the same phenomenon. The tenor of this article is to submit some suggestions for redefinition of the main types of plant health problems, their new classification and categorisation. We used the following criteria for classification of a wide spectrum of plant health problems: origin of causal agent, the mechanism by which the causal agent disrupts plant health, and epidemiological features. After the analysis of common and different properties of particular plant health problems and relationships between them, we categorised them using three neologisms, namely bioticosis, abioticosis and co-abio-bioticosis. Redefinitions of the main types of plant health problems are presented. A polyfunctional role of animal pests in plant malfunctions is discussed. Besides, examples of proposed common names for plant malfunctions caused by abiotic agents are given. The objective of the submitted suggestions is to support efforts aimed at conceptual, nomenclatural and institutional unification of plant medicine as a theoretical/practical branch.