Its president, since 2023, is Lúcia G. Lohmann of the Universidade de São Paulo; vice-president is Fabián Michelangeli of the New York Botanical Garden; and secretary-general is Mauricio Bonifacino of the Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.

The IAPT's primary purpose is the promotion and understanding of biodiversity—the discovery, naming, classification, and systematics of plants—for both living and fossil plants.

Additionally, it promotes the study and conservation of plant biodiversity, and works to raise awareness of the general public to this issue.

The organization also facilitates international cooperation among botanists working in the fields of plant systematics, taxonomy, and nomenclature.

IAPT was founded in 1950 as a not-for-profit organisation for the purposes of publication of a periodical (Taxon) dealing with activities of the association and with objects of general importance for plant taxonomy, the publication of books and indices of utility for plant taxonomists (Regnum Vegetabile), the establishment and maintenance of committees for specific taxonomic and nomenclatural purposes, and the organization of international symposia on problems of plant systematics.