Developers release open-source library to correctly parse and format botanical plant names

Most websites incorrectly italicize botanical plant names by wrapping entire name strings in italic tags, violating the ICN and ICNCP naming codes that specify which parts should be italic and which should remain roman. The team behind plant app PlantGeekz discovered the issue while building their plant library and found no lightweight parser suitable for PHP or browser-based JavaScript environments. They built and published a zero-dependency open-source library available for both PHP and JavaScript/TypeScript, with both packages producing byte-identical results. The library parses messy real-world name inputs — from nursery catalogues, spreadsheets, and user submissions — normalizing inconsistencies like incorrect hybrid signs, rank abbreviations, and cultivar formatting. Validated against over 30,000 real botanical names from the PlantGeekz taxonomy, the tool also flags data issues via warnings rather than silently correcting them.