Epiphyllum Society of America

EPIPHYLLUM SOCIETY OF AMERICA
CULTIVAR SELECTION AND NAMING GUIDELINES

NEW HYBRID SELECTION FOR REGISTRATION
You have a new epiphyllum cultivar/hybrid and you wish to name it.
Do not attempt to name a cultivar before it has bloomed for at least two years. Often the cultivar’s first bloom is not an accurate example of how the plant will flower as it matures. Many hybridizers will take cuttings from a plant, grow, and bloom them to ensure that the plant can be propagated easily from a cutting, and that it blooms consistently. This also helps ensure the survival of the new cultivar.
Your new cultivar should also be propagated and grown successfully under different conditions and environments. Cultivars that exhibit undesirable growth characteristics such as: weak growth, heavy spotting, susceptibility to fungal or bacterial rot, and/or exhibit signs of viral infection should not be registered. Avoid registering cultivars that are extremely difficult to grow, as chances are it will eventually become extinct.

IS YOUR CULTIVAR REALLY WORTH NAMING?
There is no point in going through the registration process if your cultivar does not have some unique quality or characteristic or represent an improvement over an existing cultivar.
Does your new cultivar have a unique color or color combination, or an unusual shape or form? Does your new cultivar bloom off-season or bloom multiple times during a year, or is it extremely floriferous or fragrant? Does your new cultivar have growth that is vigorous, compact, and clean or branches that have interesting form or crenation? All of these are important characteristics to look for as we attempt to improve the quality and expand the variety of our hybrids.

Your new cultivar must be distinguishable from those already in existence. Registering a cultivar that has a blossom too similar to an existing cultivar will only cause confusion for those who follow us. This will also hamper our ability to properly identify cultivars that may have lost their names/epithets. The only way to make this determination is by comparing your flower to those from existing cultivars.
Once you are satisfied that you have a cultivar that meets the criteria outlined above, then decide if you want to give it a cultivar name.

HOW DO I FORM A NEW CULTIVAR NAME/EPITHET?
Coining a new and original cultivar name is not easy, especially in groups which historically have hundreds or even thousands of cultivars. An ideal name is both easy to spell and pronounce in the various countries in which the cultivar may be distributed.
Cultivar names are always written within single quotation marks so that they stand out – for example ‘American Sweetheart’.

The following checklist contains all the pertinent rules and regulations from the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP) for naming your cultivar.
1. New cultivar names may not be entirely in Latin.
2. Names in languages other than English, must be accompanied by an accurate English translation to facilitate checking that the name meets the rules for registration.
3. The cultivar name does not have to consist of an existing word or words but may be a novel
invention. (i.e., NuMex Arthur).
4. The cultivar name can have no more than thirty (30) characters (Roman letters, numbers, and
permitted punctuation marks or symbols) overall excluding spaces and the single quotation
marks.
5. Names cannot consist solely of a single letter, or solely of Arabic or Roman numerals, or a single
letter or numerals in combination with a punctuation mark
6. Each word of a cultivar name must start with a capital letter unless linguistic custom demands
otherwise. Exceptions are words after a hyphen, unless they are proper nouns, articles,
conjunctions, and prepositions other than those in the first word of the name. (ex. Commander-
in-Chief)
7. A cultivar name should be as short as practical and should not consist of, nor contain, overly
long words that may be difficult to write or pronounce. (i.e., ‘Diplomgartenbauinspektor’).
8. Do not use punctuation marks except for the apostrophe (’), the comma (,), up to two (2) non-
adjacent exclamation marks (!), the period or full-stop (.), the hyphen (-), the forward slash (/),
or backward slash (\) symbols.
9. A cultivar name may not contain fractions and/or symbols. (i.e., ½ Empty, Sambuca®, Two +
Two)
10. Do not use names composed of only simple descriptive words (adjectives) (i.e., ‘Pink’, ‘Pretty’, ‘Large White’, ‘Blue Red’).
11. A cultivar name cannot be a) so similar in its original written form, or b) so similar or identical in pronunciation, or c) so similar or identical in spelling when translated or transcribed, that it
could be confused with the name of an existing cultivar. (‘Padray’ would conflict with ‘Padre’).
12. Avoid names that might resemble terms used in the marketplace. (‘Ten Dollars’, ‘Tax Free’ and ‘Post Paid’.)
13. Make sure that your cultivar name is not, or does not contain, the Latin or common name of a genus or the common name of any species in a genus if use of such might lead to confusion. Do not use words like “epiphyllum”, “epicactus”, “anguliger” etc., as part of your distinct cultivar
name.
14. A cultivar name cannot be established if it might be interpreted as exaggerating the merits of
the cultivar (i.e., do not use superlatives such as ‘Best Ever’, ‘The Greatest’, ‘Improved’ or
‘Largest of All’).
15. Names containing initial articles (i.e., a, an, the) are allowed, however they may not be used to create a new name from an existing one (i.e., ‘Radiant Fire’ exists, ‘A Radiant Fire’ or ‘The
Radiant Fire’ would not be allowed).
16. Names in the possessive form and possessive pronouns are allowed but may not be used with an existing name to create a new hybrid name (‘American Sweetheart’ exists, ‘Bill’s American Sweetheart’ or ‘My American Sweetheart’ would not be allowed).
17. You may not use the name of an existing cultivar and add a “moniker” or name to create a new variety (i.e., ‘Liberty American Sweetheart’ would not be allowed as ‘American Sweetheart’ is already registered).
18. Titles such as Mr., Mrs., Princess, King, etc. are allowed but cannot be used with an existing
name to create a new cultivar name. (‘Mrs. American Sweetheart’ or ‘Princess American
Sweetheart’ would not be allowed; similarly, you cannot remove a title to create a new name;
(’Mrs. Gertrude W. Beahm’ exists, ‘Gertrude W. Beahm’ would not be allowed).
19. Abbreviations are allowed but may not be used to create a different name from an existing one (i.e., ‘Professor Ebert’ exists, ‘Prof. Ebert’ would not be allowed. Similarly, you cannot create a new name by eliminating an existing abbreviation; (‘Mrs. Gertrude W. Beahm’ exists, ‘Misses Gertrude Beahm’ is not allowed).
20. Slight modifications of existing names are not allowed; (‘Evening Delight’ exists, ‘Evening
Delights’ would not be allowed; ‘Fire Flame’ exists, ‘Fiery Flame’ would not be allowed; ‘Gold
Medal’ exists, ‘Golden Medal’ would not be allowed).
21. Names made by simply changing the spelling of existing names are not allowed (i.e., ‘Search Light’ exists, ‘Search Lite’ is not allowed).
22. Umlauts and other diacritical marks do not constitute new letters; (‘Deja Vu’ exists, ‘Dèjá Vu’
would not be allowed, similarly 'Frühlingsgold’ exists, ’Fruhling’s Gold’ would not be allowed).
23. The name of a living person other than an immediate family member, should not be used unless that person grants permission for use of their name. When that person is deceased, you may want to seek permission from the person's relatives or the executor of their estate to avoid
possible litigation. When registering a cultivar named for a living person, the registrant must
attest that they have received that person’s permission to use their name.
24. Make sure that publication of the cultivar’s name is not against the wishes of its raiser or
breeder. When registering a cultivar hybridized by another living person, the registrant must
provide documentation that the hybridizer gives permission for the registrant to register the
cultivar.
25. Avoid names that give a false impression as to its raiser, breeder, or origins. (i.e., do not use the names of hybridizers of the past in your cultivar name).
26. Avoid names that imply that the cultivar is derived from another when this is not the case (i.e., ‘Padre Junior’, ‘Padre’s Pride’ or similar type of name when the plant is not descended from ‘Padre’.)
27. Cultivar names cannot contain either trademarked names or abbreviations.
28. Cultivar names cannot contain the names of international organizations.
29. Cultivar names may not contain the following words or their equivalents in any language:
“hybrid,” “cultivar,” “grex,” “group,” “maintenance,” “mixture,” “selection,” “sport,” “series,”
“strain” or the plural form of these words, or the words “improved” or “transformed” or their
equivalents in any language.
30. Cultivar names/epithets may not contain the word “form” or “variety'' or their abbreviations or
equivalents in other languages.
31. Cultivar names which might be considered offensive should not be published