International Plant Names Index - Definition

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.

When a taxon is validly described for the first time, according to the rules of taxonomy, this description will be used. When a subsequent author describes the same plant again, it has to yield. When for instance an older genus description is found, all species have to carry that older name for the genus part therefore their name changes. The IPNI database is a collection of all descriptions known to the three cooperating institutions and they work towards standardizing the information in one format. IPNI uses the trinomial nomenclature as its standard.

This means that they have to standardize the author and the publication information. The author abbreviations will be standardized according to the Brummitt and Powell’s Authors of Plant Names. They have to deduplicate the information from the three institutions and they will amalgamate the information into one record.

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

External link

• The International Plant Names Index (http://www.IPNI.org)