International Plant Names Index (IPNI)

Search page of IPNI © IPNI & Kew

The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names of all seed plants, ferns and fern allies with bibliographic reference to the place of first publication of each name.  Its goal is to provide a tool for systematists and eliminate the need for repeated reference to primary sources for basic bibliographic information about plant names. The data are freely available online, and downloads of data have been given to a number of projects for use in generating checklists and as authority files for other databases or programmes. The website (www.ipni.org) currently receives around 30,000 searches a day.

We make the name data available dynamically to Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for use in the Electronic CATalogue of names of known organisms (ECAT) program and IPNI is also searchable via the ePIC interface, the (GBIF) data portal and the Species 2000 site. We participated with other members of the taxonomic and biodiversity informatics communities in prototype development of a GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) scheme for IPNI records; GUIDs for names were applied in 2006, GUIDs on author records are to be released during 2009. We work with other nomenclator initiatives brought together as part of the GBIF ECAT work programme, and the European Union funded Pan-European Species Directories Infrastructure (PESI) project.

In early 2004 over 50,000 fern names were added from the Index Filicum making the data available on the internet for the first time. Work continues on standardising the data. By the middle of 2009, 83% of author citations and just under 80% of publication titles in plant name records had been standardised and linked to the standard record. Generic names in current use have now been assigned to the appropriate Brummitt family and spelling of specific and infraspecific epithets is being examined with corrections being made where necessary to bring them into line with the current ICBN.

Since 2006, users have been able to submit corrections to the data directly from the record in question.  Later versions of the website will extend this to all types of IPNI records (currently it just works for Authors) and to allow users to send information about omissions. We also plan to make available services to allow batch checking of data online.

We continue to keep IPNI up to date, in collaboration with Harvard University, adding between eight and nine thousand records annually.  Figures on number of names added each year are now displayed on the website, updated monthly.