Dr Ronell Klopper first woman from Africa to serve on International Nomenclature Editorial Board

Dr Ronell Klopper, an extraordinary lecturer in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences and H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium, is the first woman from Africa elected to the Editorial Committee for the Madrid Code—the latest version of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.

Dr Klopper is also a Principal Scientist and the South African National Plant Checklist Co-ordinator at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). She is also the nomenclature specialist to the Plants Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Nomenclature is a complex and specialised field of plant science. It requires a deep understanding of the Code and the interaction of its various rules and recommendations.

“Being nominated and appointed to serve on the Editorial Committee by my peers is an immense honour. It means that my fellow scientists acknowledge and recognise my expertise and the contributions that I make towards botanical nomenclature. It is also a huge responsibility to ensure that the decisions made regarding amending the Code are accurately reflected in the new version that the Editorial Committee must produce,” Dr Klopper said.

“Personally, I am really pleased that I can represent South Africa and Africa on this international committee. I feel privileged to be the first woman from Africa to be elected to the Editorial Committee. As with many other sciences, this was a very male-dominated field, but more and more women are being recognised for their knowledge of nomenclature. The Editorial Committee of the Vienna Code (2006) were all males; the Editorial Committee for the Melbourne Code (2012) included one female; for the Shenzhen Code (2018) there were three female members; now, for the Madrid Code (2025), we were five women among the total of 18 members,” she added.

Dr Klopper explained, "The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants [the ICN or Code for short] governs how algae, fungi, and plants are named. The rules and recommendations that make up the Code ensure best practice is followed when assigning names, and its main aim is to ensure stability in the nomenclature of these organisms. The Code is amended every six years following a rigorous process of publishing proposals to amend the Code, discussion of these in the phycological, mycological, and botanical community, a preliminary guiding vote, and then final discussion and voting on the proposals at a Nomenclature Section meeting, which is associated with an International Botanical Congress (IBC).”

The Nomenclature Section also appoints various permanent nomenclature committees that will deal with nomenclatural matters under the auspices of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) in the period between IBCs. One of these committees is the Editorial Committee, which is tasked with amending the Code by incorporating all the adopted amendment proposals following the Nomenclature Section decisions and producing a new version of the Code.

The work of the Editorial Committee is therefore crucial to ensure that the decisions made by the community at the Nomenclature Section are accurately reflected in the latest version of the Code, and that the new Code appears as soon as possible after the IBC. Without the Code, there would be no guidance on how to name algae, fungi, and plants; on what is required for a name to be effectively and validly published; and how to decide what the correct names of an organism are where more than one name is available.

Dr Klopper concluded, “The name of an organism is the key to unlocking all known information about that organism. Names are labels we use for taxa (groups of related organisms) to facilitate communication and knowledge transfer related to these taxa. Without stability in nomenclature and the proper application of correct names to taxa, science communication, research, and conservation efforts would become increasingly difficult as nobody would be certain what organism is referred to.”

Interesting to know:

Each version of the Code is named after the place where the relevant Nomenclature Section and IBC were held. The latest version is the Madrid Code (published on 21 July 2025), following the IBC held in Madrid, Spain, in July 2024. The next IBC will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2029 – the first time on the African continent, and Dr Klopper will help produce the Cape Town Code.