Most Ananas are Cultivars

The naming of cultivated plants had its origins in 1862 when Alphonse de Candolle wrote a letter which was subsequently placed before the International Horticultural Congress of Brussels, 1864. De Candolle wished to reserve Latin names for species and varieties and to use only non-Latin `fancy' names such as `Bijou', `Rainbow', etc., for garden forms. He suggested that this common, traditional and ancient practice should be made the only practice. It was not until 1952 for the ICNCP (International Code of Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants) to be born. It was not until 1979 that the Bromeliad Society produced its first Check-list of hybrids entitled 'International Checklist of Bromeliad Hybrids'. The following year they were appointed International Cultivar Registration Authority for Bromeliaceae but it was not until 1998 did we see the first Bromeliad Cultivar Register (BCR) published, closely followed by the on-line register in 2000 with as many photographs as we could find. It has been totally renewed in 2010 (http://registry.bsi.org/), see Lawn, Butcher & Gouda (cont.upd.).