Hundreds of racist plant names are changed according to the historical coordination of botanists.

Hundreds of racist plant names are changed according to the historical coordination of botanists.
researchers voted for the first time, to eliminate scientific names of organisms because they are insulting . Botanist decided that more than 200 plant and algae species should no longer contain a racist expression in connection with the word caffra, which is mainly used against blacks and others in South Africa.
The changes that are adopted at the International Botanical Congress in Madrid mean that plants such as the coastal coral tree officially be referred to as erythrina affra from 2026 and no longer as erythrina caffra
"We always believed in the process and the majority of the global support of our colleagues, even if the result of the vote would always be scarce," says Gideon Smith, a plant taxonom at Nelson Mandela University (NMU) in Gqeberha, South Africa, who proposed the change together with the colleague Estrela Figueiredo from NMU.
Your proposal replaces species names based on the word caffra and its derivatives by derivatives of 'AFR' to instead recognize Africa. The measure was decided in a tense secret vote, with 351 votes for it and 205 against it.
committee created
A second change in the rules for the naming of plants that spoke to problematic names, such as those who honor the people who benefited from the transatlantic slave trade, was also said goodbye - albeit in a weakened form, says Kevin Thiele, a plant taxonom at the Australian National University in Canberra, which has made the suggestion.
Scientists of the section for nomenclature of the botanical congress have decided to create a special committee for the treatment of ethical questions when naming newly described plants, fungi and algae. Art names that are normally defined by the scientists who first describe in scientific literature can now be rejected by the committee if they are regarded as a derogatory for a group of people. However, this only applies to species names that were awarded after 2026, not to historical names that Thiele and others would like to remove.
thiele says that the creation of a name ethics committee and rules for the treatment of derogatory new names was probably the best that he could hope for from this congress, and "at least it is a small step towards recognizing the problem".