Specific epithet

Specific epithet
The second word in the botanical binomial is the specific epithet. It has meaning or it has no meaning of its own, subject to the same lack of rules, abundance of rules, and avoidance of rules as found above.

specific epithet The second word in a binomial (scientific) name, following the genus name.

(L. species, particular kind) a group of interbreeding individuals, not interbreeding with another such group, being a taxonomic unit including two names in binomial nomenclature, the generic name and specific epithet, ...

The specific epithet, repens, is derived from the Latin for "creeping." Our partridgeberry is the only species in the United States of the genus. Fellow cohorts of the Mitchella genus are few and mostly found in Asia.

Using Rudbeckia hirta as an example, Rudbeckia identifies the genus to which this plant and its close relatives belong; the second word, hirta, is known in botanical jargon as the specific epithet.

A: The full name of this tree is X Chitalpa tashkentensis, and it's a combination of the scientific names of its two parents. The specific epithet ('tashkentensis') identifies the city in Uzbekistan where the hybrids were created, ...

And I couldn't help notice that the bees and butterflies preferred those asters to the much "prettier" flowers in front of them. The specific epithet of nova angliae was my eye-opener here. But of course! These plants belonged here! ...

See also: Plant, Epithet, Gardening, Nomenclature, Botanical