About IPNI

The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and fern allies. Its goal is to eliminate the need for repeated reference to primary sources for basic bibliographic information about plant names. The data are freely available and are gradually being standardized and checked. IPNI will be a dynamic resource, depending on direct contributions by all members of the botanical community.

IPNI is the product of a collaboration between The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Harvard University Herbaria, and the Australian National Herbarium

NEWS - January 2009

• The IPNI database is live, so the many additions and changes we make daily are immediately visible on the IPNI website. If you view IPNI data elsewhere ensure that you are looking at the most recent version of the record.

• Read about events in the history of Index Kewensis from 1893-2000. We hope you will find this new page informative and that it will help you to interpret the data. The information was taken from the IK archive.

• Information for plant name authors. Find out how to create the standard form of your name by reading this page.

• Could we please request your help with tracing references that we've been unable to obtain. We have been able to add some missing names and make some corrections as a result of your help so far. If you have contact with any of the authors involved, please let us, or them, know! List updated December 2008.

• Errors in page or volume number, title or publication year which are spotted in the data and corrected during the standardization process are listed in a table. These are mostly scanning errors. If you come across more, please let us know. Table last updated 5 January 2009.

• A quick analysis of the names added to IPNI since 1 Jan 2007 that were published in 2007-8 showed that just over 1.6% (or about 140 names) were illegitimate or not validly published according to ICBN (2006).

• Please let us know if you come across scanning errors, particularly in plant names. There are still a lot lurking there. Here are a few examples of some that were corrected in December: tenuispiea (tenuispica), ensicuhferum (ensiculiferum), lageniformia (lageniformis), christopheraenii (christophersenii), mcdleyi (medleyi), buehananii (buchananii), zeyberi (zeyheri), mortchanii (mortehanii), comprcsaa (compressa).

• Statistics page reformatted to make it easier to read. Check here for numbers and categories of names added to IPNI.

• See links page for a selection of sites that you may find useful, like electronic sites of Botany, Plant Biology and Science Journals, BPH-2 online, ICBN (2006) and more.

• Generic names in current use have been assigned to the appropriate Brummitt family (see Understanding the data). Standardization of the remaining generic names continues.

TIPS

January 09

• Remember IPNI's focus is purely nomenclatural. No opinions are given on what are currently accepted names or synonyms. [See link to find some sources of current names.] 

• A hyperlink on author name or publication title in the detailed search results indicates standardized format. 

• Clicking on the IPNI icon in the top left hand corner of every page in the website will take you back to the Home Page. 

December 08

• You can use the Boolean term 'OR' to search for records from two or more genera at once e.g. 'Poa OR Zea' finds all of the records of Poa and all of the records of Zea in one search. The usual filter options e.g. by rank, author, dataset etc. can be applied to a Boolean search.

• Use wildcards (*) in the author field if filtering your plant name search by author. Around 18% of authors have not yet been checked and linked and may not be in standard form.

• The IPNI home page is updated monthly, usually near the beginning of each month, with information and search tips to help you get the most out of the data. Check regularly to find out what is going on.

November 08

• Publication dates of the parts making up a single journal volume often span a range of years.

• Until 1970 the only ranks listed in IK were genus and species. From 1971 all ranks from family down to infraspecific level are listed.

• Want to streamline your searches? Browse the search tips page for ideas and examples.

October 08

• Want to see new names added since last year, last month, last week or yesterday? You can do this by searching by additional terms. Search must be limited by at least one term, like family, genus, author. Find out more.

• A hyperlink on author or publication title in the detailed search results indicates standardized format.

• If you find IPNI useful, please mention it when citing sources of information. It can be cited as 'The International Plant Names Index (2008). Published on the Internet http://www.ipni.org [accessed 1 March 2008]*. *[Replace this date with the appropriate date for your use of the database]

September 08

• IPNI's focus is purely nomenclatural. No opinions are given on what are currently accepted names or synonyms. [See link to find a selection of sources of current names.]

• You can highlight recent additions to the errors table if you use Firefox, by going to the Edit menu, selecting "Find" then adding your criterion, e.g. '2007-08', to the toolbar that appears near the botton of the screen.

• If you have difficulty finding a name which has a compound specific epithet, e.g. Pereskia opuntiiflora, try replacing the connecting vowels with a wildcard. We are working on correcting such epithets. Find out more in ICBN (2006), Art. 60.8 and Rec. 60G.

Tips Archive....

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Page last updated 5 January 2009