Botany and horticulture — the twain shall meet

Abstract

The residual failures of harmony between botanical and cultivated plant systematists is related to a review of their methodologies. Because some cultivated plant groups overlap the distinction, it is argued that special classification systems are not appropriate generally to cultivated plants. A fundamental reason for the difficulty is suggested and it is shown that this still allows, as a compromise solution, the adoption of the author's previously published flexible unified hierarchy of categories, which is figured and its relevance to the whole situation explained. Some misunderstandings between botanists and horticulturists are reviewed and explanations consistent with the previous discussion offered. These concern typification, whether cultivars require types or have synonyms and what should be done about the confusion of “typical”. The relationship between the Codes is clarified by an example and the matter of the “gardener's species” is discussed.