Medicinal and aromatic plants – industrial profiles

Nomenclatural notes and clarification on sectional classification
The naming of all plants is governed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
which sets out a series of rules on the naming of plants. The code provides an internationally
agreed set of rules and standards to which all names must comply to be accepted. While the code
may require what appears to be some frustrating name changes it replaced a situation in which
there was no agreed code and individuals constantly changed names to the greater confusion of
everyone. Names will be stable when using this international standard once these changes and
corrections have been made. In accordance with this code a number of changes have been made
over recent years to the section names and hence it seems appropriate to explain and clarify these
changes as follows:
1
Section 
Spica
Ging. to section 
Lavandula
– Article 22 of the code requires that the name of 
a subdivision of a genus that includes the type of the genus must repeat the name of the
genus unaltered. The type concept is a central element of botanical nomenclature. Any
name must have a type specimen (this is usually a herbarium specimen) which essentially
acts as a permanent reference point that determines the application of that name. This rule
allows the subdivision containing the type of the genus to be instantly identified. In the
case of 
Lavandula
the type of the genus is a specimen of 
L. spica
L. (although the correct
name in general usage is 
L. angustifolia
). This type species was placed by Gingins (1826) in
section 
Spica
and hence the name of this section was changed to 
Lavandula
so as to repeat
generic name as required by Article 22.
2
The names of plants must also follow certain grammatic rules of botanical Latin, again
defined in the code. In the case of section 
Subnuda
and 
Dentata
the names as originally 
published are incorrect according to Article 21.2 as this requires the epithet to be a plural
adjective agreeing in gender with the generic name. In practice this requires the correction
of the endings to 
Subnudae 
and
Dentatae
, respectively.

---