Why Do Species' Names Change?

Abstract

The reason why scientific names change is because research is constantly correcting errors and scholarship is constantly untangling the related misconceptions. Until the advent of the Internet new names and name changes were approved by the International Botanical Congresses that met at ten-year intervals. Between intervals, proposed new names were published by recognized publications like Rhodora or Sida. In 1994 John T. Kartesz of the Biota of North American Program published a two-volume second edition of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland, which became the established reference for names of North American plants on the date of its publication. This work made the Flora of North America project practical by setting a base population against which the specialists could establish the limits of their work.