Research guide
How to document a plant and support it with sources.
01 · The simple workflow
Six things make a useful record
A useful record can be incomplete. Save what you know, label uncertainty, and improve it when better evidence appears.
- Name the plant.Add the names people actually use, including original-language names, translations, romanizations, aliases, and alternate spellings.
- Describe it.Write what makes the plant recognizable or different. Plain observations are welcome.
- Record its story.Add what is known about its origin, the people involved, and its lineage. Leave fields blank when you do not know.
- Explain propagation when it matters.Say whether the name continues through pups, tissue culture, spores, or another method—and avoid promising that offspring are identical.
- Add your sources.Give enough information for someone else to find the webpage, post, catalog, interview, book, photograph, or other evidence.
- Label uncertainty.Use words such as reported, disputed, or unknown instead of filling a gap with a guess.
02 · Names and identity
A name is a clue, not proof
Keep original names, translations, romanizations, trade names, and alternate spellings together when they refer to the same identity.
Do not merge plants simply because they share a name such as Moonlight. Compare their origin, lineage, dates, descriptions, and photographs.
The breeder, selector, namer, introducer, and seller may be different people. Record only the roles supported by what you found.
An incomplete record is more trustworthy than a complete-looking record built from assumptions.
03 · Propagation and lineage
Ask whether it is the same selection or new offspring
A plant may produce pups, spores, and tissue-culture material. That does not mean every propagated plant needs a new registry record. Create a separate identity only when a distinct selection, offspring, or documented line needs to be distinguished.
Usually continues the same plant identity and name.
Create genetically new offspring. A spore-grown plant does not automatically inherit the parent’s selection name.
Intended to reproduce the same selection. Record a separate identity only when a distinct, stable plant is being documented.
Propagation records how a plant can reproduce. Lineage records how a particular named plant originated from another named plant. For example, Jade Girl producing spores is propagation; a separately named selection grown from those spores is a spore-offspring relationship.
04 · Sources and uncertainty
Use the best evidence you can reasonably find
Original or firsthand records
Dated posts from the breeder or originator, original descriptions, nursery catalogs, labels, interviews, correspondence, and photographs of the original plant.
Independent accounts
Several dated sources that agree, society articles, collector histories, and records from nurseries close to the plant’s introduction.
Listings and repeated stories
Marketplace listings, reposted captions, forums, and unattributed claims can point you toward better sources, but repetition alone does not prove a story.
Make every source recognizable
- Use its real published title, or a short factual description if it has no title.
- Add the author, photographer, speaker, nursery, publisher, or platform when known.
- Include the date and link when available.
- Use notes to explain what the source supports and any reason for caution.
When credible sources disagree, preserve the disagreement. Do not combine conflicting stories into one confident account.
05 · Plant labels
Choose the clearest cautious label
Named selection
A particular selected plant known by a name.
This is a useful default when its full history or continuity has not yet been documented.Cultivar
A cultivated selection with recognizable characteristics retained through an appropriate method of propagation.
Use when its identity, defining traits, continuity, and name are adequately documented.Hybrid
A plant descended from different taxa or named lines.
Do not guess the parents or the direction of the cross.Trade or market name
A name used to sell material that may not identify one consistent selection.
Repeated listings alone do not prove a cultivar or clone.WPS documents and evaluates cultivated identities. It is not currently an International Cultivar Registration Authority and does not grant official cultivar registration.
06 · Quick examples
How the guidance works in practice
P. willinckii ‘Jade Girl’
Record fertile spores and pups as observed propagation. Tissue-cultured material is commercially documented, but its producer, source material, and fidelity remain unresolved. Do not automatically apply the Jade Girl name to spore-grown offspring.
Moonlight
If the name appears on different plants, keep the identities separate until their names, origins, lineage, descriptions, and images establish that they are the same.
Spur
If Spur was selected from another line, record “selected from” as lineage. How later Spur plants are propagated is separate information.
Auburn River
Use the location as reported biological origin when supported. A place of origin does not by itself establish a cultivar identity.
Jenny and Kitchakood
Record named people and reported hybrid parents when sources support them. Mark the story as reported or unknown where the evidence is incomplete.
07 · Contribute
Help grow the registry
You do not need to be a botanist to contribute. If you enjoy researching Platycerium, translating plant names, tracing old posts, documenting nursery history, or sharing firsthand knowledge, we would love to hear from you.
We are currently looking for more plant photos to help grow the registry. If you have photos to share, we would love your support. Email them to contribute@worldplatycerium.com, and include the plant’s name and how you would like to be credited.
Tell us a little about your interests, languages, region, or the plants you know best. Research can be done one record at a time, whenever you have time.