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Title: Corrections to the Vienna Code

Author
item MCNEILL, JOHN - CANADA
item REDHEAD, SCOTT - CANADA
item Wiersema, John

Submitted to: Taxon
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/10/2007
Publication Date: 6/20/2007
Citation: Mcneill, J., Turland, N.J., Wiersema, J.H. 2007. Corrections to the Vienna Code. Taxon. 56:585-586.

Interpretive Summary: Accurate scientific names of plants are essential for communication about them and are especially important for international exchange of agricultural, horticultural and forest plants. In order to ensure that the scientific names of plants remain stable, a set of rules have been developed about how scientific names should be applied. This set of rules is periodically reviewed and altered when a majority of botanists decide that this would be useful. A newly revised set of rules that govern the naming of plants was recently published; however, some mistakes were made in that publication. This paper provides corrections to the most recently published International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Code). The Code is used by botanists worldwide to determine the accurate scientific names of plants assuring effective and accurate communication especially about plants.

Technical Abstract: Since the publication of the Vienna Code, several errors have been noticed. Most are minor punctuation or cross-referencing errors, or, in the Appendices, inconsistencies in abbreviation, but there was one important omission from Art. 37, the misspelling of two specific epithets and the transposition of a pair of type citations in Appendix IV, and an erroneous type citation in Appendix V. The errors noted to date are listed. In addition, some minor inconsistencies and typographical errors have been discovered and new information on the authorship of certain names has come to light. The modifications and additions reflecting these are not listed, but will be incorporated as appropriate in translations and other future publications. The inconsistencies discovered principally involve Appendices IV & V and include the removal of redundancy in type citations, e.g. the initials of collectors, and the provision of some additional cross-references.