The International Plant Names Index

The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names
and associated basic bibliographical details of all seed plants. 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 collaboration between The Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, The Harvard University Herbaria, and the Australian
National Herbarium. The page summarizes basic information about each
data source and the procedures followed in merging the records so that
the user can understand the origin and the limitations of the combined
dataset.

Over one million records have come from Index Kewensis. This is
global in coverage and lists names from the first edition of
Linnaeus's Species Plantarum to those being published now. Basic
bibliographic details are included for each name and for later records
the year of publication is also included. Over 350,000 records have
come from the Gray Index (originally the Gray Herbarium Card Index)
which includes names for New World taxa published on or after January
1886. Basic bibliographic details and date are included for each name
and many records include information about types. Over 63,000 records
have come from the Australian Plant Names Index which has been
compiled since 1973 and includes all scientific names used in the
literature for Australian vascular plants. Index Kewensis includes
only the names of seed plants. The Index Filicum, also compiled at
Kew, is a separate database. While it is envisaged that the Index
Filicum data will be transferred to IPNI, this i s not scheduled for
the immediate future. However the Gray Index data includes vascular
plants of the New World. The Australian Plant Name Index records names
for all Australian plants but its contribution to IPNI is restricted
to the flowering plants, the ferns and their allies.

Thus while there is considerable overlap in content between the three
indices they are in many way complementary. IPNI, the product of a
merger between these three represents the most comprehensive listing
of plant names available today. A number of editorial processes are
planned to improve the quality of the data over the coming
years. These include reduplications, standardization and verification

Data URL: "http://www.ipni.org/"
Information obtained from "http://www.ipni.org/"