The Dataset of Camellia Cultivars Names in the World.

backgroundCamellias are popular ornamental, tea and woody-oil plants that have been cultivated throughout the world for centuries. To date, over 23,000 cultivars, with more than 45,000 cultivar names including synonyms, have been registered or published. A global digital dataset of Camellia names will provide a validated reference which can then serve to prevent further duplication when selecting names for new cultivars and assist in clearing up some of the confusion that still clings to a few of the old cultivar names. This comprehensive compendium is our review of camellia cultivars through history. NEW INFORMATION: The camellia cultivar names were collected from books and journals, as well as new registrations. These were then reviewed by experts in the online working platform, the Database of International Camellia Register (DICR). After treating and correcting important issues that existed in camellia names, especially those with many re-used names and diacritical marks etc. in Japanese cultivars, a dataset of camellia names from sources throughout the world was summarised from the year 1253 to 2019. To date, a total of 45,210 cultivar names were released by different countries, including 23,887 accepted names and 21,323 synonyms. Excluding 3,944 names believed extinct, a total of 19,944 cultivar names are still in use. Amongst camellia cultivars, most (23,449) were for ornamental use, 429 were additionally used for tea and 228 for oil.