Those involved with plant nomenclature are always trying to be sure right the names is applied to a plant yet this has occurred many times. The list of synonyms grows everyday. Now there is a concerted effort to reduce the confusion and boil the accepted plant names to a manageable number. The Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) with Kew Gardens have launched the Plant List, a new web site that will track this nomenclature morass and provide a running tally of the accepted names and a list of those that are duplicates.
A recent news article in the “NOW” section of the National Geographic magazine (page 24) identifies this effort and provides the example of Bellis perennis, the common daisy that has 29 names applied to the same plant. Started in 2010 by the MBG and Kew, the premiere botanical institutions, have joined forces to make our lives easier and make the corrections as they are vetted through taxonomic and nomenclature experts. The web site (http://www.theplantlist.org/) provides the on going effort and will be a valuable addition to the botanical community. Be sure to check it out and make sure we not calling the same plant different names!
