International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, And Plants (Shenzhen Code)

The rules that govern the scientific naming of algae, fungi, and plants are revised at the Nomenclature Section of an International Botanical Congress (IBC). This edition of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants embodies the decisions of the XIX IBC, which took place in Shenzhen, China in July, 2017. This Shenzhen Code supersedes the Melbourne Code (McNeill & al. in Regnum Veg. 154. 2012), published six years ago after the XVIII IBC in Melbourne, Australia, and like its five predecessors, it is written entirely in (British) English. The Melbourne Code was translated into Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish; it is anticipated, that the Shenzhen Code, too, will become available in several languages. In questions about the meaning of provisions in translated editions of this Code, the English edition is definitive.

This volume of Regnum Vegetabile records the outcomes of the Nomenclature Section of the XIX International Botanical Congress (IBC) that was held at University Town, Shenzhen, China, from 17 to 21 July 2017. During the meeting, 397 proposals to amend the Code were submitted for consideration, plus 16 from the floor.

Some of the major decisions accepted were as follows, and these are reflected in this book:
1. The meeting agreed on a framework for the registration of new names and nomenclatural acts of plants and algae. A new, permanent Registration Committee will recommend on the official recognition of nomenclatural repositories.
2. There is now an expanded Division III on governance of the Code, i.e., how the rules for naming algae, fungi, and plants can be changed. Since the rules were first written, methods for managing and changing the rules have partly depended on memory and records kept in hard-to-find publications. Anyone new to nomenclature could find it very difficult to understand the correct procedures, but now everything is clearly spelled out in the Code.
3. Mycologists use the same rules for naming fungi as do botanists and phycologists for naming plants and algae, but there are some special rules for fungi. The Nomenclature Section in Shenzhen voted to put all the rules that apply solely to the naming of fungi into a dedicated chapter of the Code, and that chapter will in future be changed and improved by the Nomenclature Session of an International Mycological Congress, which takes place every four years.

Full List of Editors
Nicholas J Turland(Editor), John H Wiersema(Editor), Fred R Barrie(Editor), Werner Greuter(Editor), David L Hawksworth(Editor), Patrick S Herendeen(Editor), Sandra Knapp(Editor), Wolf-Henning Kusber(Editor), De-Zhu Li(Editor), Karol Marhold(Editor), Tom W May(Editor), John McNeill(Editor), Anna M Monro(Editor), Jefferson Prado(Editor), Michelle J Price(Editor), Gideon F Smith(Editor)