XVI International Botanical Congess

The protists are a paraphyletic group of eukaryotes. Protistological taxonomists can elect which code of nomenclature to apply, and both can be applied to the same taxa. This has led to a variety of difficulties - mostly homonyms. The botanical and zoological perspectives on the microbial world which have given us the 'algae' and 'protozoa' is inadequate to protect stability or to minimise ambiguity. New natural groupings (e.g. Euglenozoa, stramenopiles, 'opisthokonts' and alveolates) include mixtures of 'algal', 'fungal'or 'protozoan' taxa. Some highly speciose taxa are sister groups to taxa with few species, and creates problems with allocation of ranks. The protection of stability is itself a source of ambiguity. Protistologists need guidelines and this situation offers perspectives on the harmonization of the codes and/or the emergence of a single unifying codes. The characteristics of new phylogenetic schemes are described, rankless classifications and the problems of homonyms will also be addressed.