© Jörg Ochsmann, IPK Gatersleben 2000 

The WWW database (http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/taxcat2/) provides various information on botanical taxonomic categories (e.g. source of introduction (author and year), original definitions, nomenclatural status according to actual versions of the two Codes (ICBN and ICNCP), history and use, and literature references). In addition the relations between the different categories are shown. For this purpose synonyms and alternative names (in different languages) are distinguished. In connection with the BIG project (Federal Information System Genetic Resources) and the development of "Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops", a survey of botanical taxonomic categories was started. It quickly turned out that many taxonomic problems in cultivated plants merely arise because of the vast
number of categories used to classify taxa [or culta]. How could all the terms related to one of the accepted Categories of the two Codes (ICBN and ICNCP)? A lot of terms are used in different meanings by different authors, others lack exact definitions. 41 different taxonomic categories have been accepted by the two actual versions of the botanical Codes (38 by the ICBN and only three by the ICNCP: graft-chimaera, cultivar and cultivar-group), but over 100 categories (without alternative names from other languages) have been found so far. Many of them have been either accepted by earlier versions of the Codes or have been used by single authors or in single groups only. In many cases little information on definition and use is available.