Systematics for the domesticated organisms
Photo by Heather Gill on Unsplash
What is cultonomic nomenclature?
Cultonomy is based on a different systematic theory of the origin of the targeted organisms (domesticates and domestication theory) than that of the origin of non-domesticates (viz. evolutionary theory). Therefore cultonomic systems use their own classificatory categories (cultivar, race, crop, cultivar group) and their own nomenclatural system for the resultant “systematic groups of domesticates”= culta in classification proposals.
Cultonomists think that the nomenclatures of non-domesticated organisms should be kept at a far distance from that of domesticated organisms. The goal is to keep the ties as few as possible because the nomenclature of domesticated organisms does not reflect phylogeny as its prime goal.
The nomencature codes of cultonomy
Nomenclature codes are documents regulating how names should be formed. The sciences dealing with cultivated forms of plants are garden science (horticulture), agriculture and silviculture, and those for animals, livestock science. There doesn’t seem to be any comprehensive code for all cultivated animals, neither for strains of bacteria etc., but rather separate codes. We will come back to those at a later stage, and focus on horticulture at the early stage of the project.
The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP)
This most important code for cultivated plants is maintained by the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). But there are also nomenclature systems based on local laws, which may or may not be based on ICNCP.
A carrot cultivar (or variety, as it is often called in English) is written in the following form, the one we all know from the seed bags:
Daucus carota L. ‘Cultivar name’ (and often without an author)
For certain plants a group is also assigned, such as e.g. this broccoli:
Brassica oleracea L. (Italica Group) ‘Marathon’
2023-03-29 We are informed that the ISHS this spring is in the process with a new edition.
Last Updated on 2023-04-03 by Karl Aakerro