The Variety Name Lists are lists of names that have been used or proposed for use as variety names for agricultural and vegetable seeds subject to regulation under the Federal Seed Act. The purpose of these lists are to prevent violations of the Federal Seed Act by providing lists of names that have already been used by plant breeders and others who are naming varieties.

Please remember this is not a complete listing of all variety names.

Neither varieties nor variety names have to be registered with the Seed Regulatory and Testing Division or any other agency to be sold in the United States. We have recorded the variety names from sources such as variety release notices, official journals, seed catalogs, and seed trade publications, as well as names cleared for use by seed companies.

Therefore, some of the names on the list may not be legal under the Federal Seed Act. There may be errors or omissions. There may be names that were cleared for use but never used.

You may obtain a copy of these Variety Lists by downloading them by clicking on their names below. Each is a zip file containing a comma-delimited text file suitable for importing into a database.

Files updated on December 16, 2014

Seed Regulatory and Testing Division

LPS, AMS, U.S. Department of Agriculture

801 Summit Crossing Place, Suite C

Gastonia, North Carolina 28054-2193