The Official role of ICRA for Brugmansia is iBrugs.

Membership in the International Brugmansia & Datura Society  is not needed in order to be able to register Brugmansia and Datura. Registrations must be submitted through them. However they are recognized by the RHS as the registering authority for Brugmansia and Datura.

The American Brugmansia and Datura Society began the necessary steps to become the International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) for Brugmansia and Datura in May 2002. In the second week of August, our formal application was presented to the Nomenclature and Cultivar Registration Commission Members of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), at their convention in Toronto.

On November 13, 2002, ABADS received a letter dated November 5, 2002, from Dr. Alan Leslie of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), who is the Senior Registrar, informing us that our Official position as the International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) for Brugmansia and Datura has been approved! Our official position as ICRA went into effect November 2, 2002.

During the summer of 2010 the American Brugmansia and Datura Society's corporate name was officially changed to the International Brugmansia and Datura Society. This does not affect the role of ICRA in any way, and maintains that role to be the official holder of the ICRA registry.

The International Brugmansia & Datura Society is responsible to keep records of old and new Brugmansia and Datura cultivars:

"As well as recording the names, ICRAs also collect information about the cultivars themselves. Apart from recording descriptive details, collecting details of the author of the name or the breeder/raiser of the cultivar gives precision to the very meaning behind the name itself so that a plant name carries a measurable identity. The ICNCP endorses the collection and maintenance of nomenclatural standards - herbarium specimens or illustrative material against which a cultivar name may be checked for authenticity. Thus there is true meaning behind every cultivar name. The grower or purchaser of a plant which carries a cultivar name should be able to discover the supposed attributes of that plant from a truly authoritative source."

ISHS ICRA Introduction

ICRA registration does not protect the plant itself. Patents are intended to protect the plant! An ICRA is the official keeper for the official recorded names and history of each Brugmansia and Datura cultivar.

New Registered Cultivar Names are published four time a year in the International Brugmansia and Datura Society's quarterly journal, "The Trumpeter".

International Cultivar Registration Authorities (ICRA), whether they represent agricultural, forestry or horticultural disciplines, are appointed by the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) through its Commission for Nomenclature and Cultivar Registration and are contracted to operate within the provisions of the current edition of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). iBrugs is the only ICRA authority to register Brugmansia.

The purpose of an ICRA is to:

Promote fixity and stability in the nomenclature of the categories cultivar and groups within designated plant taxa and to produce and promote authoritative checklists and registers of all names known to have been in use in such taxa.

The primary functions of an ICRA are:

(a) To register cultivar and group names in the denomination class for which they have accepted responsibility, and to ensure their publication and establishment.

(b) To record, publish, and make otherwise available, full lists of all cultivar and Group names in that denomination class whether they are in current use or are part of the historical record so as to provide the world community with authoritative listings of names.

(c) To maintain records, in as great a detail as is practical, of the origin, characteristics and history of each cultivar and Group in that denomination class.

It is NOT the function of an ICRA:

(a) To conduct trials.

(b) To judge if one cultivar or Group is more meritorious or more useful than another.

(c) To judge distinctness of cultivars or Groups.

NOTE: Although an ICRA does not in itself conduct trials, the organization sponsoring an ICRA often does.