Why Names Matter

One plant can be known by different names in different places, languages and disciplines.  One name, however, may be ambiguous and be used by different people to refer to different plants.  The names given to food supplements and herbal drugs derived from plants or fungi are equally variable. "Ginseng", for example, neing used to refer to substances derived from multiple plant species with different chemistries.

Plants for Health resolves this confusion by mapping these names to an authoritative and global scientific taxonomy.
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Podcast | The Significance to Pharmacovigilance

A podcast from WHO's Uppsala Monitoring Centre Drug Safety Matters series.

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Nomenclatural Resources

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, curates and hosts global reference resources for the taxonomy and nomenclature of plants and fungi.

Kew Plant and Fungal Taxonomy

Medicinal Plant Names Services

For scientific, common and pharmaceutical names, parts and data sources visit the Kew MPN services portal.

Medicinal Plant Names Services

Some example image pages for Saffron and Baobab.

MPNS screen for Saffron images MPNS Baobab images

Plants of the World Online

For the scientific nomenclature, taxonomy and distribution of all plants.

Browse all plants

Header information for Baobab.

POWO Baobab header POWO Baobab header duplicate

Species Fungorum

For the scientific nomenclature and taxonomy of fungi.

Search the Species Fungorum

Species Fungorum