List of descriptive plant species epithets (I–Z)



Since the first printing of Carl Linnaeus's Species Plantarum in 1753, plants have been assigned one epithet or name for their species and one name for their genus, a grouping of related species. These scientific names have been catalogued in a variety of works, including Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners. William Stearn (1911–2001) was one of the pre-eminent British botanists of the 20th century: a Librarian of the Royal Horticultural Society, a president of the Linnean Society and the original drafter of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.

The first column below lists seed-bearing species epithets from Stearn's Dictionary, Latin for Gardeners by Lorraine Harrison, The A to Z of Plant Names by Allen Coombes, The Gardener's Botanical by Ross Bayton, and the glossary of Stearn's Botanical Latin. Epithets from proper nouns, proper adjectives, and two or more nouns are excluded, along with epithets used only in species names that are no longer widely accepted. Classical and modern meanings are provided in the third column, along with citations to Charlton T. Lewis's An Elementary Latin Dictionary.

Key

 * LG = language: (L)atin or (G)reek
 * L = derived from Latin, or both Classical Latin and Greek (unless otherwise noted)
 * G = derived from Greek
 * H = listed by Harrison, and (except as noted) by Bayton
 * D = listed in Stearn's Dictionary
 * S = listed in Stearn's Botanical Latin
 * DS = listed in Stearn's Dictionary, with the word or root word listed in Botanical Latin
 * C = listed by Coombes