CULTON VERSUS TAXON - CONCEPTUAL ISSUES IN CULTIVATED PLANT SYSTEMATICS

The systematics of cultivated plants need to be divorced from a number of confusing ties with the systematics of plants found in nature. The se ties have been developed in time because systematic groups of culti vated plants have often been looked upon as proper taxa and treated ac cordingly in classifications and nomenclature. It is shown that cultiv ated plants and their special purpose taxonomy are part of a different context (human society) than the context of taxonomy of plants in nat ure (evolution). A general concept of systematic groups of cultivated plants, termed ''culton'', is here proposed to end this confusion. The most important ranks of culta, viz. the cultivar and the cultivar gro up, are discussed and their definitions purified from imprecise elemen ts. It is shown that the culton/taxon confusion has led to systematic/ taxonomic misnomers and a far too complicated nomenclature for cultiva ted plants.