Is there an online resource for tracking updates in plant taxonomy?
You may not be able to find up-to-the-minute, late-breaking changes, but you can search by plant family, genus, or species in the following online resources which are considered authoritative on plants and their scientific names:
1. You can download the USDA’s Complete Plant List. You can search for plants by scientific or common name here as well.
2. The GRIN database (also maintained by the USDA) offers several searching options and provides information on changes for each plant retrieved.
3. The International Plant Names Index also allows you to search for plants by scientific name; in addition, you can search for publications.
4. Here are two more name databases for plants in various parts of the world:
Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database and Flora Europaea.
5. Missouri Botanical Garden’s Tropicos website is another source of information on changes to plant names.
6. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew maintains The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species.
7. Here are two links to more information about taxonomy.
Kew Gardens has information about why plants change their names.
The (now archived) Horticultural Taxonomy Group (HORTAX) was set up in 1988, with the objective of providing a forum for taxonomists and horticulturists in the British Isles who have an interest in the taxonomy and nomenclature of cultivated plants.
8. There is a journal called Taxon, available online to subscribers, and available to Miller Library patrons using the library’s computers.