The Dataset of Camellia Cultivars Names in the World

Yanan Wang; Huifu Zhuang; Yunguang Shen; Yuhua Wang; Zhonglang Wang

doi:10.3897/BDJ.9.e61646

The Dataset of Camellia Cultivars Names in the World

Biodivers Data J. 2021 Jan 19:9:e61646. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.9.e61646. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yanan Wang¹, Huifu Zhuang¹, Yunguang Shen², Yuhua Wang³, Zhonglang Wang²

Affiliations

¹ Service Center for Information Technology, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China Service Center for Information Technology, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming China.
² Kunming Botanical Garden, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China Kunming Botanical Garden, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming China.
³ Yunnan Key Laboratory for Wild Plant Resources, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China Yunnan Key Laboratory for Wild Plant Resources, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming China.

Abstract

Background: Camellias are popular ornamental, tea and woody-oil plants that have been cultivated throughout the world for centuries. To date, over 23,000 cultivars, with more than 45,000 cultivar names including synonyms, have been registered or published. A global digital dataset of Camellia names will provide a validated reference which can then serve to prevent further duplication when selecting names for new cultivars and assist in clearing up some of the confusion that still clings to a few of the old cultivar names. This comprehensive compendium is our review of camellia cultivars through history.

New information: The camellia cultivar names were collected from books and journals, as well as new registrations. These were then reviewed by experts in the online working platform, the Database of International Camellia Register (DICR). After treating and correcting important issues that existed in camellia names, especially those with many re-used names and diacritical marks etc. in Japanese cultivars, a dataset of camellia names from sources throughout the world was summarised from the year 1253 to 2019. To date, a total of 45,210 cultivar names were released by different countries, including 23,887 accepted names and 21,323 synonyms. Excluding 3,944 names believed extinct, a total of 19,944 cultivar names are still in use. Amongst camellia cultivars, most (23,449) were for ornamental use, 429 were additionally used for tea and 228 for oil. Camellia japonica and its hybrids represent 18,141 or 74.10%, followed by those of C. reticulata and its hybrids (1,432 or 5.85%) and C. sasanqua and its hybrids (1,291 or 5.27%). The top five countries of origin are USA (7,502 cultivars), Japan (6,592), Italy (2,833), China (2,066) and Australia (1,216). The data showed the number of camellia cultivars per country is somewhat related to each country's economic prosperity. Managed by the International Camellia Registration team, this is the most comprehensive dataset in the genus Camellia. It will facilitate quick reference and scientific naming for breeders.

Keywords: Camellia; cultivar; history; registration; synonym.

Yanan Wang, Huifu Zhuang, Yunguang Shen, Yuhua Wang, Zhonglang Wang.

Grants and funding

This project was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA20050204, XDA19050301, and XDA19050303) and the 13th Five-year Informatization Plan of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XXH13505-03-209, and No.XXH13506).