Botanical Names What language? Three Latin genders & primary endings: Many classical trees are feminine, regardless of ending, e.g., Quercus, Pinus, Prunus are feminine! masculine-usAmaranthus feminine-aCrassula neuter-umEriogonum Latin, language of the Romans Exception to gender endings? Not “male” or “female”!

Specific or infraspecific epithet must agree in gender with genus name: But, for classical trees: Quercus rubra Pinus rubra Prunus rubra Epithet for these trees has feminine ending because genus names are feminine! E.g., for epithet “rubr_” (meaning “red”) Amaranthus rubrus Crassula rubra var. rubra Eriogonum rubrum subsp. rubrum

What names are Latin plurals? Commemorative names? Named after some person or place. Rank of families & above (“The Rosaceae are...”)

Genitive (possessive case): Endings of commemoratives? People: Male: -ii, -i (after r or y or non-a vowel), -e (after a) smithii, jonesii, but: breweri, baileyi, montagnae Use these endings regardless of genus gender: Amaranthus smithii, Crassula smithii, Eriogonum smithii Amaranthus smithae, Crassula smithae, Eriogonum smithae Female: usually add -e or -ae barbarae, vanessae, smithae

Endings of commemoratives? People: Adjectival: Add -iana, -ianum, -ianus Agrees in gender with genus name: E.g., smithiana, smithianum, smithianus Because these are adjectives, they agree in gender: Amaranthus smithianus Crassula smithinana var. smithiana Eriogonum smithianum subsp. smithianum

Pronunciation of Latin names? No universal rules; varies from region to region. E.g, Pinus in U.S. versus Latin America Latin itself can be pronounced in various ways. We will use English pronunciation of vowel (after Botanical Latin, by W. Stern): accenting according to Latin rules pronunciation of short & long vowels as in English.

Latin diphthongs: The “o” and “i” are separately pronounced in Latin But, often like “oil” in English: Euphorbioideae two vowel combinations, treated as a single vowel -ae (æ)Tropaeolum-oeKallstroemia -eiEichhornia-euTeucrium -auDaucus-uiEquisetum BUT: -oe (=oë) if 2 vowels, not a diphthong: e.g., Aloe (also written Aloë). Monanthochloë oi Not a Latin diphthong.

Rules for syllables? Number of syllables in a scientific name? = number of vowels and diphthongs Ca ki le Cleis tes Eu ca lyp tus Pa pi li o no i de ae TridensTri dens guttatusgut ta tus Ephedrae phe dra absconditas ab scon di tas excubitus ex cu bi tus scabra sca bra eremophila e re mo phi la mi cro car pa Oe no the ra Py rus Cae sal pi ni o i de ae

Rules for pronunciation? Cakile Garcinia [hard “C” and “G”] but Cedrus cinerea Gypsophila caerulea coerulea [“C” and “G” soft if followed by e, i, y, ae, oe] Cneoridium Gnetales Pteridium Pneumatopteris [silent first letter] Chilopsis Cheilanthes [“Ch” always hard, like English “k”]

Rules for pronunciation? Xanthium [“X” at start of word pronounced like “Z”] Zanthoxylum [“x” within word pronounced like “z” or “ks”] Nicotiana [“t” pronounced like “t” or “sh”] Carduus [pronounce both u’s: Car-du-us]

Rules for accenting? ` = long (grave) ´ = short (acute) 1) Last syllable never accented unless only one: max 2) If two syllables, accent always with 2nd from last (penult), e.g., A` cer 3) If three or more syllables, accent goes with 2nd from last (penult) or 3rd from last (antepenult) 4) 2nd from last (penult) is accented if: a) it ends in consonant (vowel short): pe ren´ nis b) ends in a diphthong (long): a moe` nus c) ends in a long vowel: al si` ne d) Otherwise, antepenult accented: dra con´ ti um

How to pronounce commemoratives? 1)As they would be pronounced in Latin 2)As the person or place would be pronounced in the native language. E.g., Hesperoyucca whipplei (after Whipple)