XVI International Botanical Congess

Self-imposed burdens of descriptive botany slow it down and make it less accessible to users. Assertions made about four sets of problems are discussed. Hierarchy: tinkering with names without change in relationships hardly constitutes progress, not hierarchialising descriptions wastes spaces and burdens the memory. Accessability: botanical terms scare away users but can often be replaced by description of the structure of what is seen, names and their associated information can most readily be accessed by interactive keys. Data exchange and maintenance: data are best recorded and exchanged as measurements, not character states, such data, including those in Heywood's shoe boxes, must be archived. Style": despite editorial proscriptions, descriptions can be largely standardised, the use of existing standards such as TL2 and BPH/2 could be mandated.