A butterwort label may tell you its botanical identity, its parents, a selected cultivar name or simply the name under which one nursery received it. Those are different kinds of information. The Nano Nursery reference library will preserve them separately so that an attractive name does not become a claim the evidence cannot support.
Start with the kind of name
A species name refers to a botanical taxon. A cross formula records parentage. A cultivar name identifies a cultivated selection or assemblage defined by its distinguishing characteristics. A locality label records an asserted origin. These categories can overlap: a cultivar may be selected within a species or from a hybrid, while a plant carrying a cross label may have no cultivar name.
In normal horticultural presentation, a cultivar epithet appears in single quotation marks and is not italicised: Pinguicula ‘Down Under’. Botanical names are italicised, while a multiplication sign separates parents in a cross formula. These conventions help readers see what a label claims. They do not authenticate the plant carrying it. Source: A World of Pinguicula, scientific-name conventions.
A published example: ‘Down Under’
Helmut Kibellis's original description explains that ‘Down Under’ was selected from a cross made in 2001 between a red-leaved P. emarginata and P. moctezumae. The account describes narrow foliage with distinctive pigmentation, pale mauve flowers and vegetative propagation. It identifies a selected plant, rather than declaring every seedling of those parents to be ‘Down Under’. Source: Kibellis, 2008, original cultivar description.
This distinction matters when a label is lost. Similar parentage and a similar photograph are useful clues, but they do not reconstruct a missing chain of provenance. The library can explain a cultivar's published features without claiming to certify every plant sold under its name.
Publication and registration are separate records
The International Carnivorous Plant Society's published registration lists record both descriptions and registration dates. For example, the entry for ‘PE Formosa’ cites a description published in 2022 and a registration date of 23 January 2023. Our profiles will retain those two dates separately where both are available. Source: ICPS, cultivar registrations for 2022 and 2023.
A name encountered in a catalogue will first be searched in the relevant register and publication index. If the underlying description cannot be found, the entry will say so. Absence from one search result is not sufficient evidence to declare a name invalid, and commercial popularity is not proof of registration.
What every cultivar profile will contain
- Exact name: the published spelling, with separately recorded nursery spellings and search aliases.
- Origin: breeder or selector, reported parents, selection history and the source supporting each detail.
- Distinguishing characters: traits from the original description, separated from later observations.
- Propagation: the method required to maintain the described characteristics, where documented.
- Identity limits: what a photograph can suggest, and what requires provenance or examination of a living plant.
- Evidence: links to the description and registration record, plus dates of review and unresolved questions.
That structure also prevents the care section from becoming a guess based solely on parentage. A parent's behaviour is useful context, but a hybrid's actual growth cycle should be supported by observations of that hybrid.
Crosses, siblings and seed-grown offspring
A cross formula is not a unique clone identifier. Separate seedlings from the same parental combination can require their own accession numbers and observations. Likewise, seed collected from a named plant should retain its recorded pollination history rather than automatically inheriting a cultivar label.
Some cultivar definitions can be maintained through suitable seed propagation; others depend on vegetative continuity. The library will follow the individual description instead of imposing one rule on every cultivar. Where propagation requirements remain unknown, that uncertainty will be explicit.
Localities and nursery forms
A place name can carry valuable information, but it is not automatically a subspecies or variety. Nursery expressions such as “red”, “giant” or “white flower” may describe appearance without having formal standing. We will preserve the exact supplied string, record who supplied it, and explain whether it represents a published name, a locality claim or an unresolved trade label.
When evidence later connects two labels, the earlier records should remain traceable. A cross-reference is often more useful than deleting an old name, especially for collectors comparing plant lists assembled at different times.
A library that can be corrected
Each entry will distinguish documented facts from reported history and editorial interpretation. New publications, clearer provenance and corrected identifications can then improve the record without pretending that uncertainty never existed. Readers should be able to follow the evidence back to its source and understand exactly which plant or name a page describes.
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