Format: ORAL

Alastair Culham

Herbarium School of Biological Sciences University of Reading Reading U.K.

Plant taxonomy is a scientific discipline which output is used directly by a broad range of other parties. Horticultural taxonomy has a particular impact on gardeners and the horticultural trade. This has led to tension between those who dislike any change and those who update names based on new evidence of relationships. The past three decades have seen major changes in plant names and the way plants can be identified due to the development of DNA based data. Through a series of examples, the impacts of nomenclatural changes, reactions to decisions made and the lessons learned from those experiences are examined.