CULTONOMY OF ASTER L

Recent increase in commercial breeding in the genus Aster of cultivars particularly suitable for the cut-flower industry calls for a reasses sment of the systematics of cultivated asters. A system of three culti var-groups is proposed here to encompass most of the diversity of cult ivars based on typical user criteria: the Dumosus Group, the Universum Group and the Novi-belgii Group. The applicability of numerical chara cter analysis for cultonomic classification is outlined. The flexibili ty of open ('cultonomic') classifications for culta is demonstrated. I t is shown that this system of cultivar-groups serves stability much b etter in the application of names to Aster cultivars than the continue d use of Latin binomials. The use of the culton concept and its conseq uences for classifying Aster cultivars is outlined.