Culton versus taxon: conceptual issues in cultivated plant systematics

SummaryHetterscheid, W. L. A. & Brandenburg, W. A.: Culton versus taxon: conceptual issues in cultivated plant systematics. – Taxon 44: 161‐175. 1995. – ISSN 0040‐0262.The systematics of cultivated plants need to be divorced from a number of confusing ties with the systematics of plants found in nature. These ties have been developed in time because systematic groups of cultivated plants have often been looked upon as proper taxa and treated accordingly in classifications and nomenclature. It is shown that cultivated plants and their special purpose taxonomy are part of a different context (human society) than the context of taxonomy of plants in nature (evolution). A general concept of systematic groups of cultivated plants, termed “culton”, is here proposed to end this confusion. The most important ranks of culta, viz. the cultivar and the cultivar group, are discussed and their definitions purified from imprecise elements. It is shown that the culton/taxon confusion has led to systematic/taxonomic misnomers and a far too complicated nomenclature for cultivated plants.