The Dataset of Camellia Cultivars Names in the World

• Main Authors: Yanan Wang, Huifu Zhuang, Yunguang Shen, Yuhua Wang, Zhonglang Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pensoft Publishers 2021-01-01
• Series: Biodiversity Data Journal
• Subjects: Camellia; cultivar; synonym; registration; history
• Online Access: https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/61646/download/pdf/

The species of the genus Camellia arise in southeast Asia, with 80 percent of the species coming from China. These include economically important C. sinensis (Tea) and C. oleifera (oil) and the decorative C. japonica, C. reticulata and C. sasanqua etc.As camellias had been cultivated for very long time, and had been developed as much popular throughout the world, a very large number of camellias had been cultivated. So far, over 23,000 cultivars, with nearly 45,000 cultivar names including synonyms, have been registered or published. In order to strengthen the system of validity by prior publication, 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, it is urgently needed to have a dataset to include all camellia cultivars in the long history throughout the world.The camellia cultivar Names were widely collected from books and journals and new registrations through the world, and reviewed by experts in the online working platform, the Database of International Camellia Register. After treating some important issues existed in camellia names, especially those plenty of re-used names and diacritical marks etc. in Japanese cultivars, a dataset of Camellia names was summarized from the year of 1253 to 2019 throughout the world (Table 1). So far totally 45,210 cultivar names were released by different countries, including 23,887 accepted names and 21,323 synonyms or other names. Excluding 3,944 names believed extinct, totally 19,944 cultivar names are present used. Among camellia cultivars, most of them (23,449) were for ornamental, 429 for tea, 228 for oil. Most cultivars (ca. 76.10%) were from C. japonica and its hybrids (19,050), around 5.73% cultivars were from C. sasanqua and its hybrids (1,434), and about 5.72% were from C. reticulata and its hybrids (1,432). Top five origin countries are USA (7,502 cultivars), Japan (6,592), Italy (2,833), China (2,066) and Australia (1,216). After analyzing the relationship of cultivar numbers in different years and countries, the development history of Camellia had close related with those of countries in the world. It is the most comprehensive dataset in the genus Camellia throughout the world managed by International Camellia Registration team, which will facilitate quick reference and scientific naming for breeders, and utilization of camellias through the Belt and Road Initiative.