A Pinguicula label can contain a species name, a multiplication sign, a name in quotation marks, a place name and a collector’s code. Each part may preserve useful information, but those parts do different jobs.
Understanding them helps you choose the correct care guide, compare plants accurately and keep a collection’s history intact. It also prevents a common mistake: treating every named plant as a separate species or every plant in quotation marks as a registered cultivar.
Start with the species name
In Pinguicula agnata, Pinguicula is the genus and agnata is the specific epithet. Together they form the species name. Write the genus with a capital letter and the epithet in lower case; both are italicised in botanical writing.
Once the genus is clear, P. agnata is a useful abbreviation. On a permanent collection label, spelling out the genus avoids confusion if plants from different genera are stored together.
You may see an author’s name after the species, such as Pinguicula agnata Casper. This identifies the naming authority. It is not another variety, a breeder’s clone code or a part of the epithet, and it is not italicised. Kew currently accepts P. agnata Casper and P. moranensis Kunth.
Accepted names and synonyms
A taxonomic source may treat two published names as referring to the same species or place a name within a more broadly defined species. The name it adopts is the accepted name in that treatment; other names may be listed as synonyms.
This is different from a spelling correction. It is also different from proving the identity of a particular plant. A synonym tells you how a botanical name is treated, but it does not demonstrate that every plant sold under that name was correctly identified.
For a collection record, keep two fields: the exact name received and the current interpreted name, with a source and date. That preserves the original evidence and lets you revise the interpretation later. Do not erase an old label before recording it.
Subspecies, varieties and botanical forms
These are ranks below species. Their abbreviations appear between the species name and the final epithet: subsp. for subspecies, var. for variety and f. for form. The rank abbreviation itself is normally set in plain type.
A real example is Pinguicula moranensis var. neovolcanica. Kew currently recognises both var. moranensis and var. neovolcanica. Sergio Zamudio’s 1999 study distinguished them particularly through the resting leaves and rosettes, alongside habitat evidence.
The word “variety” in ordinary shopping language is much looser. A seller may use it to mean any different-looking plant. Writing “var.” on a nursery label does not, by itself, establish a published botanical variety. Check the name against a taxonomic source before using that rank in a species account.
What the multiplication sign means
The sign × indicates a hybrid relationship. A formula such as Pinguicula agnata × P. gypsicola names the parents as reported in the breeding record. It does not identify one particular seedling from that cross.
Two siblings from the same cross may differ. Repeating the cross also does not guarantee the same result. If the direction of the cross is documented, preserve it: in breeding records, the seed parent is conventionally written first. Do not reverse an existing label merely to put the names into alphabetical order.
Nursery records sometimes use an ordinary letter “x”. Preserve that original string in the provenance record even if the article’s typography uses ×. Brackets in a complex cross carry information too; removing them can change the reported ancestry.
A named natural hybrid may instead have × before its epithet. Kew’s genus list includes Pinguicula × hybrida and Pinguicula × scullyi. These should be counted separately from non-hybrid species.
What makes a cultivar name different?
A cultivar is a cultivated selection defined by distinguishing characteristics and maintained through appropriate propagation. It can arise within a species or from hybrid ancestry. “Cultivar” and “hybrid” therefore answer different questions: one concerns a recognised cultivated selection; the other concerns parentage.
In normal horticultural typography, write a cultivar epithet in single quotation marks and plain type: Pinguicula ‘Aphrodite’. Its name need not display the full parental formula. The original description is the place to check the traits, origin and method by which the plant should be maintained.
The ICPS Pinguicula register lists ‘Aphrodite’, ‘Sethos’, ‘Tina’ and ‘Weser’, among others. That particular page explicitly covers registrations before October 2020. The CPN cultivar-description archive contains newer publications too. A published description and a completed registration are distinct pieces of evidence.
Quotation marks on a shop label are not sufficient proof of registration. When the history is unclear, use “sold under the name…” or “nursery label…” and explain what has actually been verified. A name absent from one historical list is not automatically invalid.
Why seed-grown plants need careful labelling
A seedling is not automatically entitled to its parent’s cultivar name. Sexual reproduction can change the combination of traits. Check the original cultivar description and its propagation requirements before applying the name to offspring.
For a cultivar maintained as a clone, vegetative propagation preserves the genetic individual more directly than raising seed. Yet it is still useful to keep batch records and inspect the resulting plants. “Tissue cultured” describes a production method; it does not establish the plant’s identity or prove that an undocumented name is a cultivar.
A practical seed label records the cross, sowing date and seedling or batch code. Keep a selection’s eventual name separate from that original breeding record.
Locality names and clone codes
A place name may refer to the origin of a population, the location associated with a collection or a name that has circulated in horticulture. Those possibilities should not be collapsed into one. Ask what documentation connects the plant to the place.
Similarly, a code can identify a collector’s accession, a supplier’s item or a particular clone. Its appearance alone does not tell you which. Preserve every letter, number and leading zero, and keep the supplier’s explanation beside it.
A locality population may include multiple genetic individuals. A clone represents material propagated from one individual. Plants sharing a locality label need not be identical, while a reliably traced clone may be grown in many different nurseries.
What “sp.” and “cf.” tell you
Pinguicula sp. indicates that a species has not been specified. It is not a newly described species name. “cf.” signals comparison with a named species and expresses uncertainty rather than confirming the identification.
These qualifications are useful evidence. Keep them until a supported identification replaces them. A plant that resembles a photograph is a candidate for comparison, not a proven match.
Growing groups are another layer
Subgenera and sections are formal arrangements within a genus. Tropical, warm-temperate, cold-temperate, homophyllous and heterophyllous are words used in ecological or cultivation discussions. They should not be treated as a sequence of botanical ranks.
Modern investigations can change the relationship between classification and growth form. Andreas Fleischmann’s 2021 classification paper is a useful route into that subject. In this series, a growing-group label introduces care considerations; the individual profile supplies the necessary detail.
A label worth keeping
Keep the received name exactly as written, supplier, acquisition date, any accession code and the source of later identifications. Add photographs of mature leaves, flowers and seasonal forms when available. Record parentage as “reported” until a reliable breeding record supports it.
With those simple habits, a label becomes more than a name. It becomes a traceable record that remains useful when plants are divided, shared, renamed or studied again.
Reference sources checked: 22 September 2026. Taxonomic and registration treatments may change.
