SynonymA Synonym is an alternative

Synonym

A Synonym is an alternative name which has been used to refer to a species (or to a subspecies, variety or forma) but which The Plant List does not consider to be the currently Accepted name. The decision to assign the Status of Synonym to a name record is based upon a taxonomic opinion recorded in the cited data source (selected using automated rules-based approach; see How The Plant List was Created).

Synonymy can be derived directly from the source data (showing identical data as the source data) or can be derived indirectly using the automated decision rules (e.g. if source 1 says that A is a synonym of B and source 2 says that B is a synonym of C, then The Plant List will show A to be a synonym of C).

For each name with Status of Synonym The Plant List aims to provide:

the name;
the author(s) credited with publishing that name;
the place and date of original publication of the name where this was supplied;
a link to its Accepted name;
a reference to the source database supplying this name record and expressing the opinion that it is a Synonym (with, where possible, a link to that record in the source database);
the IPNI identifier (linking the name record to the International Plant Names Index, a bibliographic resource which will provide full original publication details for this name);
an assessment of the Confidence that The Plant List attaches to the Status of the name being Synonym.

Unresolved Name

Unresolved names are those to which it is not yet possible to assign a Status of either ‘Accepted’ or ‘Synonym’. For an explanation of how names were assigned a status please refer to How The Plant List was Created. Unresolved names fall into two sub-classes:
Unassessed names

for which there is no evidence within any of the contributing data sources that the status of this name had been evaluated by the data owners. None had recorded that it was either ‘accepted’ or a ‘synonym’. None had recorded that they had attempted such an evaluation. Since, by definition, a name is accepted by the publishing author at the time of publication, it could be argued that all names are putatively Accepted until such time as they are demonstrated to be Synonyms.
Unplaced names

for which the data source supplying that record indicated positively that the data owners had sought to resolve its status and not been able to come to a conclusion so as to place it either in synonymy or as the accepted name of a new species. This is often the case if the name has insufficient description and no herbarium specimens are known or where one or more nomenclatural acts are required to provide the accepted name for which the unplaced name would be a synonym.

Among Unresolved names, Unassessed names are much more numerous than Unplaced names.

It is also important to note that in a small number of cases the status ‘Unresolved’ was assigned to a name record during creation of The Plant List despite a taxonomic opinion having been recorded in the contributing data source. This occurs where to have followed this opinion would have conflicted with opinions recorded elsewhere in other data sources. To follow both would have resulted in inconsistencies within the working list of plants. In such cases:

the status of the record on this website is indicated with an ‘*’ to indicate that it derives from the procedures used to build The Plant List and
the original status of the name (as recorded in the source database) is indicated on the details page for that name.

For each name with Status of ‘Unresolved’ The Plant List aims to provide:

the name;
the author(s) credited with publishing that name
the place and date of original publication of the name where this was supplied;
a reference crediting the source database providing the name; (with, where possible, a link to that record in the source database)
the IPNI identifier (linking the name record to the International Plant Names Index which will provide full original publication details for this name);
Unresolved names are generally flagged as ‘Low Confidence’ entries.

Misapplied Names

Some data sets which contributed to The Plant List record not only how plant names should be used but also where in the published literature a given name may previously have been used inappropriately (to refer erroneously to another species). Recording such misapplication of names helps users to avoid pitfalls when interpreting the literature. The decision that a record represents the misuse of a name is derived from the cited data source (see How The Plant List was Created.)

For each reported misapplication of a plant name we aim to provide:

the name;
the author(s) that published that name and wherever possible an indication of where or by whom this was misused (e.g. ‘sensu Smith’ may appear after the publishing author);
a link to the Accepted name of the species to which this name has been previously and erroneously applied;
a reference crediting the source database recording this misuse of the name; (with a link to that record in the source database and hence the publication details of where this name was misapplied);
an assessment of the Confidence that The Plant List attaches to this name having being erroneously applied to the other species.

Annotation of names

Sources which contributed name records to The Plant List record included, on relatively few occasions, additional information about individual names beyond their status as Accepted or Synonym. Where possible this information is retained within The Plant List and made visible to users as annotations attached to the relevant name record.
Invalid and Illegitimate Names

Some of the names in The Plant List were recorded by the contributing data sets to be either invalidly or illegitimately published according to the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
Spelling variants (or Orthographic variants)

Some data sources include names which are recorded as ‘Orthographic variants’ (or spelling variants) of another name. These misspelt names may not have been validly published and yet are nevertheless used in the literature and therefore included in The Plant List to guide those that find them.