Article 35
35.1. A new name or combination published on or after 1 January 1953 without a clear indication of the rank of the taxon concerned is not validly published.
35.2. For suprageneric names published on or after 1 January 1908, the use of one of the terminations specified in
Rec. 16A.1-3, Art.
17.1, 18.1, 19.1, and
19.3 is accepted as an indication of the corresponding rank, unless this
(a) would conflict with the explicitly designated rank of the taxon (which takes precedence) or
(b) would result in a rank sequence contrary to Art. 5 (in which case
Art. 33.7 applies).
Ex. 1. Jussieu (in Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 12: 497. 1827) proposed
Zanthoxyleae without specifying the rank. Although he employed the present termination for tribe
(-eae), that name, being published prior to 1908, is unranked. Zanthoxyleae Dumort. (Anal. Fam. Pl.: 45. 1829), however, is a tribal name, as Dumortier specified its rank.
Ex. 2. Nakai (Chosakuronbun Mokuroku [Ord. Fam. Trib. Nov.], 1943) validly published the names
Parnassiales, Lophiolaceae, Ranzanioideae, and Urospatheae. He indicated the respective ranks of order, family, subfamily, and tribe, by virtue of their terminations, even though he did not mention these ranks explicitly.
35.3. A new name or combination published before 1 January 1953 without a clear indication of its rank is validly published provided that all other requirements for valid publication are fulfilled; it is, however, inoperative in questions of priority except for homonymy (see
Art. 53.4). If it is a new name, it may serve as a basionym for subsequent combinations or a replaced synonym for nomina nova in definite ranks.
Ex. 3. The groups "Soldanellae", "Sepincoli", "Occidentales", etc., were published without any indication of rank under
Convolvulus L. by House (in Muhlenbergia 4: 50. 1908). The names C. [unranked]
Soldanellae, etc., are validly published but they are not in any definite rank and have no status in questions of priority except that they may act as homonyms.
Ex. 4. In Carex L., the epithet Scirpinae was used in the name of an infrageneric taxon of no stated rank by Tuckerman (Enum. Meth. Caric.: 8. 1843); this taxon was assigned sectional rank by Kükenthal (in Engler, Pflanzenr. 38: 81. 1909) and its name may be cited as
Carex sect. Scirpinae (Tuck.) Kük. (C. [unranked] Scirpinae Tuck.).
35.4. If in one whole publication (Art. 35.5), prior to 1 January 1890, only one infraspecific rank is admitted, it is considered to be that of variety unless this would be contrary to the author's statements in the same publication.
35.5. In questions of indication of rank, all publications appearing under the same title and by the same author, such as different parts of a flora issued at different times (but not different editions of the same work), must be considered as a whole, and any statement made therein designating the rank of taxa included in the work must be considered as if it had been published together with the first instalment.
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