Australian Plant Name Index Governance

There is a recognised need for databases that index the scientific names of plants and their usage in taxonomic literature so users do not always have to access the original references. With a nomenclatural starting point date of 1753 and a worldwide scope, this literature is vast and individual references can be difficult to source. Indexing databases provide this information to enable researchers to track down the places of original publication of taxon names and to see what nomenclatural actions occurred in original and subsequent references.

In Australia, the Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) has been recording names for vascular plants since the 1970s, first in hard-copy form and later in a database that has been accessible online since the early 1990s. APNI is recognised as an authoritative and current source of information on the nomenclature of Australian vascular plants and is used by taxonomists, policy makers and other groups.

With the advent of national projects including the Australia's Virtual Herbarium (now the Australasian Virtual Herbarium) it became apparent that an agreed national taxonomy for the Australian flora was required. This was particularly important for legislative listing of threatened species, where mismatches in taxonomy caused confusion and delay. In 2005 the Australian Plant Census (APC) project was launched to provide a solution, with the support of the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH). The project has continued since that point, completing a "first pass" of all vascular plants recorded for Australia and continuing to provide updates as new taxonomic information is published.

Scope and Currency

The Australian Plant Name Index captures all scientific and relevant informal names applied to Australian native and naturalised vascular plants in botanical taxonomic literature and selected popular works. A full bibliography is maintained for each name captured.

While APNI indicates the nomenclatural status (e.g. not validly published or illegitimate or an orthographic variant) of each name and designation entered, it does not provide any judgement or advice on their taxonomic currency.

Data currency is maintaining by monitoring relevant publications and entering taxon names, publication and authorship details, and nomenclatural actions.

Management and resourcing

The Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR) provides centralised management of the data, develops standards to ensure data quality and consistency, and provides training. A proportion of data entry effort is provided by representatives in CHAH member herbaria, mostly relating to publications from within their institution, with an agreed timeframe.

Availability

APNI data are made freely available online and continually updated via the National Species List (NSL) infrastructure.