Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.
The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names that contain the word caffra, which originates in insults made against Black people, will be replaced by the word affra to denote their African origins. More than 200 species will be affected, including the coast coral tree, which will be known as Erythrina affra instead of Erythrina caffra.
The scientists attending the nomenclature session also agreed to create a special committee which would rule on names given to newly discovered plants, fungi and algae. These are usually named by those who first describe them in the scientific literature. However, the names could now be overruled by the committee if they are deemed to be derogatory to a group or race.
A more general move to rule on other controversial historical labels was not agreed by botanists. Nevertheless, the changes agreed last week are the first rule alterations that taxonomists have officially agreed to the naming of species, and were welcomed by the botanist Sandy Knapp of the Natural History Museum in London, who presided over the six-day nomenclature session.
“This is an absolutely monumental first step in addressing an issue that has become a real problem in botany and also in other biological sciences,” she told the Observer. “It is a very important start.”
The change to remove the word caffra from species names was proposed by the plant taxonomist Prof Gideon Smith of Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, and his colleague Prof Estrela Figueiredo. They have campaigned for years for changes to be made to the international system for giving scientific names to plants and animals in order to permit the deletion and substitution of past names deemed objectionable.
“We are very pleased with the retroactive and permanent eradication of a racial slur from botanical nomenclature,” Smith told the Observer. “It is most encouraging that more than 60% of our international colleagues supported this proposal.”
And the Australian plant taxonomist Kevin Thiele – who had originally pressed for historical past names to be subject to changes as well as future names – told Nature that last week’s moves were “at least a sliver of recognition of the issue”.
Plant names are only a part of the taxonomic controversy, however. Naming animals after racists, fascists and other controversial figures cause just as many headaches as those posed by plants, say scientists. Examples include a brown, eyeless beetle which has been named after Adolf Hitler. Nor is Anophthalmus hitleri alone. Many other species’ names recall individuals that offend, such as the moth Hypopta mussolinii.
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) has so far refused to consider changing its rules to allow the removal of racist or fascist references. Renaming would be disruptive, while replacement names could one day be seen as offensive “as attitudes change in the future”, it announced in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society last year. Nevertheless, many researchers have acknowledged that some changes will have to be made to zoological nomenclature rules in the near future.
Knapp said: “The decision by botanists should make it clear to the scientific community that is involved in naming organisms that they need to open up conversations and to become more aware and respectful of what names should be permitted.
“We have taken a baby step, no more than that. We need to make more changes to the rulebook. However, you never get anywhere until you start taking steps, and we have done that at last.”
• This article was amended on 21 July 2024. The name change of Erythrina caffra to Erythrina affra will take effect by the end of this month, not “from 2026” as an earlier version said.
