Cultivar

**Cultivar Basics**:
– Cultivar is a cultivated plant selected for desired traits.
– Propagation methods include division, cuttings, grafting, tissue culture, and controlled seed production.
– Cultivars can arise from human manipulation or wild plants with distinctive traits.
– Popular ornamental plants like roses and daffodils are common cultivars.
– Agricultural food crops and trees for forestry are predominantly cultivars.

**Naming and Protection**:
– Legal protection for new cultivars is offered by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants.
– Cultivar names follow rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.
– Statutory patents and plant breeders’ rights complicate the naming of cultivars.
– UPOV requires cultivars to be distinct, uniform, and stable for protection.
– Cultivar names consist of a Latin botanical name followed by a cultivar epithet.

**Etymology and Cultigens**:
– The term ‘cultivar’ was coined by Liberty Hyde Bailey to distinguish cultivated plants from wild ones.
– Cultigens are plants deliberately selected or altered in cultivation.
– Cultivars are a subset of cultigens and are maintained as recognizable entities by continued propagation.
– Cultivars can have names at various taxonomic ranks.
– The distinction between cultigen and cultivar is crucial in cultivated plant taxonomy.

**Cultivar Types**:
– Clones are genetically identical cultivars produced asexually.
– Some cultivars come true from seed while others produce variable seedling plants.
– Genetically modified plants may form cultivars with implanted genetic material.
– Different methods like division, layering, cuttings, grafts, and budding are used for propagation.
– The Cultivated Plant Code provides guidelines for the proper naming of cultivars.

**Cultivar Names and Registration**:
– Each unique cultivar has a distinct name within its genus.
– Cultivar names are regulated by the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.
– Retailers often use marketing names to replace scientific names for better market appeal.
– International Cultivar Registration Authorities (ICRAs) prevent duplication of cultivar names and maintain registers.
– Cultivar names consist of a botanical name followed by a cultivar epithet and may be registered with an ICRA.