Who named it
Suggestions show the name's author where Kew records one, such as Lindl. or Rchb.f., because the same spelling can belong to more than one author.
Plant names
Over 1.4 million plant names, suggested as you type
Type a genus or species, even an old one from a pot tag, and xPlant Pro offers the accepted name Kew links it to, with its family. Built on Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants.
Free for 14 days. No card needed.
The whole checklist, counted
Every name in Kew's June 2026 release of the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, accepted or not, is in the plant form.
- plant names
- 1,447,625plant namesAccepted, old and doubtful names, with their authors where Kew records them.
- accepted species
- 365,813accepted speciesWith their native range, where Kew records it.
- synonyms
- 879,600synonymsOther names for an accepted plant, nearly all pointing to it.
- accepted genera
- 14,159accepted generaIn 458 families.
Counted by xPlant from Kew's June 2026 release. Vascular plants only, so no mosses, algae or fungi. The full credit is at the foot of this page.
The tag says Doritis. The plant is a Phalaenopsis now.
Plant names change as botanists learn more, and pot tags stay as they were written. Three real screens from the plant form in a demo lab, with an old orchid tag in hand.
The genus on the tag
Step 1: A genus that moved still turns up
Type the first letters of Doritis and it is offered, marked with the genus it belongs to now: Phalaenopsis. Hybrid genera made by people, such as × Doritaenopsis, sit beside it, each marked Artificial hybrid.
The full old name
Step 2: An old name offers the current one
Type Doritis pulch and Doritis pulcherrima comes up, labelled “Accepted name: Phalaenopsis pulcherrima”. Pick it, and the plant gets the current genus, species and family.
The next plant
Step 3: Three letters, inside the genus you chose
With Phalaenopsis chosen as the genus, “pul” in the species field searches inside it. Phalaenopsis pulcherrima comes first, with its author and where it grows wild, and its varieties follow.
What a suggestion tells you
Enough to tell two similar names apart before you pick one.
Where it grows wild
Accepted species show their native range where Kew records one. For Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, that is Assam to Hainan and W. Malesia.
Its family, filled in
Pick a species and its family is filled in for you, with no second lookup.
Below the species
Subspecies and varieties can be picked too, such as Phalaenopsis amabilis subsp. rosenstromii, and fill the species field whole.
Doubtful names, marked
Unplaced and illegitimate names and spelling variants are labelled as such, rather than offered as if they were current.
On every plan
The suggestions are part of the plant form, under Plants → Add plant and when you edit one, so every plan has them, the free trial included.
Orchids, name by name
The orchid family is the second largest in the checklist, after the daisy family. Phalaenopsis alone has 92 accepted species and 290 older names that now point to them: more than three old names for every species.
- accepted orchid species
- 31,892accepted orchid species
- accepted orchid genera
- 730accepted orchid genera
- orchid synonyms
- 54,836orchid synonymsOlder names for accepted orchids.
- man-made hybrid genus names
- 2,487man-made hybrid genus namesSuch as × Doritaenopsis.
96,080 orchid names in all, counted from the same release.
What the list does not hold
Said here, so nobody goes looking for a name that was never in it.
Grex and cultivar names
Registered orchid grexes, such as Paphiopedilum Maudiae, are not in Kew's checklist, which lists species and botanical hybrids. A cross's grex goes on the cross itself, and a cultivar has its own field on the plant.
Mosses, algae and fungi
The checklist covers vascular plants: ferns, conifers, flowering plants and their kin. A name it does not hold can still be typed in by hand.
Renamings since June 2026
Kew republishes the checklist a few times a year, and each new release is loaded by hand. A name changed since the June 2026 release may not be offered yet.
Questions about plant names
Where do the names come from?
From the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, which the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew publishes for anyone to use under a CC BY 3.0 licence. xPlant Pro holds every name in its June 2026 release, and the plant form credits it under the name fields.
Is xPlant Pro connected with Kew?
No. xPlant Pro uses the checklist Kew publishes, with the credit its licence asks for. It is not affiliated with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Kew has not endorsed it.
What happens when I pick an old name?
Pick an old species name, such as Doritis pulcherrima, and the plant gets the accepted one: Phalaenopsis as the genus, pulcherrima as the species and Orchidaceae as the family, saved under the accepted name rather than the old one. An old genus name fills in the current genus. An old name Kew does not link to a current one is filled in as typed, and its label says so.
What if a plant's name is not suggested?
Type it as you know it. The genus, species and family fields take any name, and a plant can be saved with a common name, or with its genus and species, whichever you have on the bench.
Will it rename plants we already have?
No. Suggestions appear only while you type. Plants already in your lab keep the names they were saved with until somebody changes them.
Give your next plant the name it goes by today
Start a 14-day free trial, add a plant to your tissue culture records and type what its tag says. If Kew lists a newer name, it is offered beside the old one.
Free for 14 days. No card needed.
The plant names are from the June 2026 release of the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, and the counts on this page are xPlant’s own, made from it. Cite as: Govaerts R (ed.). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. https://doi.org/10.34885/egs6-cp24. Used under CC BY 3.0. xPlant Pro is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.