THE PLANT VARIETIES AND THE SYSTEM OF OFFICIAL NAMING FOR THEM

This article examines the linguistic and sociocultural principles governing the official naming of newly created plant varieties (phytonyms). Drawing on classification and onomastic analysis, the study contrasts organically formed folk phytonyms with officially motivated names that emerge from scientific breeding (selection) activities and institutional decisions. It identifies primary motive-types for official phytonyms — anthroponymic (personal names), toponymic (place-names), and conceptually motivated (ideological, commemorative, numeric, or descriptive) — and characterises their distinctive linguistic features: lexical stability, wider distribution, formal documentation, limited dialectal variation, and deliberate semantic transparency (e.g., numeric components indicating year or phenological traits). The paper also discusses orthographic and onomastic issues that arise in practice (capitalization, transliteration, and registration), and argues for consistent codification to ensure terminological clarity in agronomy, seed production, and legal documentation. The findings underline the role of socio-institutional factors in cultivar naming and recommend normative approaches to recording and standardizing official phytonyms to support scientific communication, agricultural policy, and cultural-linguistic integrity. Keywords: Phytonyms; Official Naming; Plant Variety Nomenclature; Selection (Breeding); Anthroponymic Phytonyms; Toponymic Phytonyms; Onomastics; Standardization