The Web Register and the Database of International Camellia Register merge

In these years professor Wang, as International Camellia Registrar, has been leading the development of a database（http://camellia.iflora.cn/）that stores not only camellia cultivars but also species, with their description and pictures. This new database has many important improvements, and, therefore, it shall become the only database of ICS. Of course, the illustrations of the previous web camellia register ( https://internationalcamellia.org/international-camellia-register) will be uploaded into the new database. This process will take some time and should be completed by the 2022 ICS congress.

The Database of International Camellia Register [ http://camellia.iflora.cn/ ]

This database has various substantial improvements：

1. It includes all ornamental, tea, and oil cultivars with their synonyms（Synonym, Different reading, Abbreviation, Orthographic error, Tentative designation, Orthographic variant, Corruption of the Japanese name, Erroneous synonym, Latin error etc.
2. It can be searched in English by name, synonym, full text. Some entries are also in Japanese (Kanji, Hiragana) and Chinese (Hanzi) for checking original names and descriptions.
3. It complies with the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). Over 2.300 duplicate names in Printed ICR had been solved, and some issues, such as Diacritical Mark for Japanese Cultivars still in the forms of the circumflex (â, ê, û, ô), had been corrected to the macron form (ā, ē, ū, ō).
4. It is a collaborative platform, which can be edited by editors (there are editors in various ICS regions). Of course, the database tracks and displays changes. Moreover, registered users can upload photos and co-operate in identifying cultivars. Of course, new cultivars can be registered online.
5. Each cultivar can be illustrated by multiple high-resolution photos (up to 15 M) and each caption displays the author and related copyright. Finally, you can print plant labels with their QR code for garden or nursery use.

Status of the Web Register [ https://internationalcamellia.org/international-camellia-register ]

I add some notes on the Web Camellia Register, that will be active for some months until the unification will have been accomplished.

The web register includes variety descriptions with about 1.000 plates and 5.000 pictures. Their respective sources are mentioned under each illustration. The reproductions of antique plates were provided by M. Bertin, A. Corneo, M. Deconninck, G. Motta. The pictures include the registration pictures of American Camellia Society, Australia New Zealand Camellia Research Society, and Estación Fitopatolóxica Areeiro (Spain). Most pictures come from over 40 individual camellia lovers - thanks to all of them! Let me especially thank T. Barnes (about 300 pics) Y. Chapel (over 400 pics), M. Chelednik (over 500 pics), A. Corneo (over 400 pics), and S.Takano (over 1.000 pics). These individual contributions really enlarged the initial set of my 600 pictures.

You can access the Register from the home page by clicking “Camellia register” button (Figure 3). Additionally, you can search a camellia by any combination of description fields (All Fields, Cultivar/Species only, Description Only) and terms (All terms, Any Terms). Suppose you search “Lavinia Maggi white”. With “All Fields”, the software will consider both description and cultivar name. With “Cultivar/species” it will consider only the cultivar name or species. With “Description only”, the engine will browse the whole description. In this search, with the option “All terms”, the engine will retrieve descriptions (actually, bare 5 cultivars) that include (only) “Lavinia” and “Maggi” and “white” (Figure 4). The combination “Description only” and “All terms” is useful with cultivars you are not sure about. Since some cultivars are popular, I uploaded multiple pictures of the same cultivar by region, soil, or sport (Figure 5), with captions showing author and location of each picture. Each picture can be magnified by clicking on the top right corner of the illustration (Figure 6). Pictures are always downloadable. Some pictures are copyrighted, e.g. conceded by ACS.

Figure 3 To access Web Camellia Register, click the “Camellia Register” button in the home page.

Figure 4 Searching camellias by the combination “All terms” and “Description only”

Figure 5 Cultivar variations and sports under the entry ‘Lavinia Maggi’

Figure 6 The cultivar picture magnified