How to Register a New Heliconia or Related Zingiberales Cultivar with HSI

Updated

The Heliconia Society International (HSI) is the official International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) for the genera Heliconia, Etlingera, Costus, Cheilocostus, Chamaecostus, and Paracostus. If you have bred or selected a distinct new cultivar in any of these genera, you register it through HSI's Cultivar Registration service on heliconia.org. The same page also lets you look up cultivars that have already been registered. Registration is what gives a cultivar name official standing, so it is the step to take once you are confident your plant is genuinely new and stable.

What ICRA status means for you

Because HSI holds ICRA appointment for these genera, a name registered through HSI is the recognized cultivar name for that plant. This matters if you intend to:

  • Distribute or sell the plant — a registered name travels with it and prevents confusion when multiple growers use different working names for the same selection.
  • Publish or exhibit — shows, journals, and collections generally expect the registered name.
  • Keep breeding records straight — registration fixes the name, the parentage or origin as you report it, and the date, so later re-descriptions do not drift.

Registration is a naming and documentation act, not a legal protection like a patent or trademark. It records the cultivar; it does not grant exclusive rights.

How to register a new cultivar

  1. Confirm the genus is covered. HSI registers cultivars in Heliconia, Etlingera, Costus, Cheilocostus, Chamaecostus, and Paracostus. If your plant falls outside these genera, HSI is not the right authority.
  2. Check that the cultivar is genuinely new and distinct. Compare it against existing records before submitting — the same Cultivar Registration page lets you look up existing cultivars. A name that duplicates or closely resembles an existing one will not stand.
  3. Go to the Cultivar Registration section of heliconia.org and use the registration entry point there. The site presents registration and lookup as two functions of the same service.
  4. Supply the cultivar details the form asks for — the proposed cultivar epithet, the genus, the origin or parentage, and a description of how it differs from related cultivars. Be precise about distinguishing characters; that is the core of what a registration record documents.
  5. Submit and wait for the record to be processed. Once accepted, the cultivar appears in HSI's records and can be found through the lookup function.

The exact fields and any supporting material (such as photographs or herbarium references) are set by HSI's registration process, so work from the current form rather than an older copy.

Looking up existing cultivars

Use the same Cultivar Registration page to search registered cultivars. This is worth doing before you name a new one — it is the fastest way to avoid a name clash and to see how comparable cultivars in the same genus have been described. It is also useful if you have acquired a plant under a trade name and want to check whether that name is officially registered.

Practical points before you submit

  • A cultivar name is not the same as a species name. You are registering a cultivated selection, not describing a new species.
  • Stability matters. A cultivar should be distinguishable and reproducible; a one-off oddity that does not hold its characters is a poor registration candidate.
  • Do the lookup first. It costs nothing and prevents the most common problem — a name that is already taken or too close to an existing one.
  • Registration is separate from membership. HSI membership brings the quarterly Bulletin and other benefits, but the registration and lookup service is described on the site as its own function; check the current page for whether any step requires an account.

If your interest is broader than a single cultivar, HSI also runs a small grants program for graduate and post-doctoral research on Zingiberales botany and horticulture, with annual grants of $1,000, and holds periodic conferences — the Thailand conference at Nong Nooch Tropical Garden has been postponed to 2027, with an optional post tour to Chiang Mai.