APNI User Guide

Abbreviations

• Australian Plant Census (APC)
• Australian Plant Name Index (APNI)
• CANBR
• Integrated Biodiversity Information System (IBIS)
• International Code of nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants( ICN)
• National Species Lists (NSL)

Introduction

The Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) is a resource for the botanical community that records plant names and their usage in the scientific literature, whether as a current name, synonym, excluded, doubtful or misapplied name. It includes both native and introduced taxa but excludes taxa known only from cultivation. Originally developed as card index by the Australian Biological Resources Study, a hard-copy version was edited by Arthur Chapman and published in four volumes in 1991. It was then made available online as one component of the Australian National Botanic Gardens’ Integrated Biodiversity Information System (IBIS). At ***some point* the management of the online data was transferred to the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR) and editing undertaken by CANBR staff.

While APNI records names and details of where they have been used but does not recommend any particular taxonomy or nomenclature, the Australian Plant Census (APC) uses the APNI records to provide a national list of accepted names for the Australian vascular flora, ferns, gymnosperms, hornworts and liverworts. It includes both native and introduced taxa but excludes taxa known only from cultivation. Launched in 2005, the management of APC was undertaken by CANBR, with the census list being built in consultation with the Council Heads Australasian Herbaria (CHAH) member herbaria via consensus and endorsed by CHAH once finalised.

The APC arranges and places plant names into a classification (“the APC tree”) as the vascular plant component [plus liverworts and hornworts] of the National Species Lists (NSL). The NSL will also provide different trees and subtrees for other components of the Australian biota.

Scope

APNI aims to include every scientific name ever applied to the Australian flora in a taxonomic or nomenclatural context. In practice, the publications routinely checked to find new names and concepts for inclusion in APNI are:

• Herbarium “house journals” (e.g. Telopea, Nuytsia)
• Other Australian botanical journals (e.g. Australian Systematic Botany, Cunninghamia)
• Overseas botanical journals that cover taxonomy and nomenclature of Australian taxa (e.g. New Zealand Journal of Botany, Phytotaxa, Taxon)
• Floras (e.g. Flora of Australia, Flora of New South Wales)
• Specialty publications on specific plant groups (e.g. R.J.Chinnock, “Eremophila and Allied Genera” (2007); “Feral Opuntioid Cacti” (2015))

Information required for APNI entry

The minimal amount of information required for an entry into APNI depends on the name being entered and its status. The simplest case is a name (scientific, informal phrase names, hybrid formula and so on), with authorship where appropriate, and a publication in which it appears (electronic or hard-copy).

Other information recorded where available includes:

• Synonymy and misapplications (for new combinations, at least the basionym should be included under the protologue reference, with a comment if needed re: indirect reference ICN Art. 41.3 (Melbourne Code, 2012))
• Page number/s, figure numbers
• Typification information
• Etymology of the name
• Common and vernacular names
• Verbatim text where relevant in a taxonomic or nomenclatural context (e.g. ***)
• APNI editorial comments (e.g. reasons for invalidity or illegitimacy or need for correction of orthography)
• Australian Plant Census information
• Links to other sources of information on and images of each taxon.

General principles and procedures

An APNI entry provides a continually updated bibliography for a given taxon name in the relevant scientific literature—the place where it first appeared and where it has been used subsequently. The majority of an APNI entry is compiled from the nomenclature “block” of a taxonomic work.

Editorial comment fields should be used sparingly rather than repeating information available in the published work. Anything that is not obvious from the APNI entry itself (e.g. why a name has been assigned a particular status) should be explained in comments.

A new APNI entry is built by combining existing records from the database. This means that the constituent parts must be entered correctly before they can be combined (e.g. a genus name and authorship must be entered and then combined with a reference before it can be used as the parent of a species name).

The inter-relatedness of APNI data means that a seemingly small change to a single APNI record (e.g. the title of a paper) may affect hundreds or even thousands of other entries. Changes are immediately visible online to anyone consulting the output. Care should thus be taken to consider the implications of a change before it is applied and to immediately check that the output appears as expected afterward.

APNI is regarded as an authoritative source of information on the names of Australian plants. It is often the “first port of call” for botanists and others seeking information on the orthography and usages of a name. Users tend to assume that APNI is well-curated and that they can rely on the information it contains and cite it in scientific publications. This places an onus on APNI editors to pay strong attention to detail when adding new records or editing existing data.

Standard procedures and comments have been developed for a number of recurrent issues that have been encountered in APNI [***link*]. These should be used consistently to ensure retrievability of data.

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If a name is marked as nom. illeg. or nom. inval. an accompanying comment should explain the reasoning and in some cases provide a reference to the relevant Article of the ICN unless it is obvious from the APNI entry itself (e.g. when a name is nom. inval., pro syn. and has been placed in synonymy of the accepted name in APNI).

If a name is marked as being an orth. var. it should also be placed in synonymy under the name with the correct orthography using the reference/s which report the error and an “orthographic variant” relationship type.

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Specific issues re: NSL Editor

Use Firefox!

Look at the output to check your work.