Botanical Latin Lexicon
A Beginners guide to common Botanical Latin.
An understanding or even a passing familiarity with Botanical Latin can give many useful clues about a plant’s discoverer, breeder, geographic source, originating nursery, appearance, or growing style. But many gardeners find it understandably very scary, especially when it comes to pronunciation.
There are two bits of information that demystified and opened up my personal exploration of the subject. Firstly, it is not an actual living, spoken language; it’s a kind of hybrid descriptive language made mainly of Latin, partly of Greek, and includes some made-up words that have been tweaked to fit the format. Secondly, and because of ‘firstly’ there is no actual authority on pronunciation, everyone just does their best and sounds a bit uncertain doing it. Usually if you are anywhere close people know which exact plant you are referring to…which is the whole point.
Biology and biological description are a bit more exacting than this though and often there is only the correct, Latin based name for particular part of a plant, or animal. As a gardener you may not need to trouble with this but if you get interested in citizen science and recording the plants around you, you will need to tackle this to work with identification keys. This section is my non-exhaustive beginners reference guide to the Latin, Botanical terminology is covered under the “Botany underlying Plant Descriptions” portion of our “Description, Classification & Botany” Page, and links to further reading are at the foot of this page.
General Rules and Tips
Latin Declensions
Like many of its derivative languages Latin nouns have variations depending on their Grammatical Case, number, or more usually, gender, they are either masculine, feminine or neuter. These are known as declensions. Adjectives used to describe nouns must have a matching gender. A lot of this is a bit complex to go into here.
The general rule here is that…
- Feminine nouns / adjectives have the ending “-a”,
- Masculine nouns / adjectives have the ending “-us”,
- Neuter nouns / adjectives have the ending “-um”,
- These suffixes are sometimes preceded by “i” so “-ia”, “-ius”, “-ium”,
- Sometimes the Greek bases of “-os” or “-on” replaces the Latin “-us” or “-um”.
These gender rules give rise to little families of suffixes or word endings. Here are some of the most commonly occurring and some pronunciations which include some exceptions. There are more exceptions, but you will pick these up as you go.
1st Declension, mostly Feminine, with some Masculine exceptions
2nd Declension, mostly Masculine with some Feminine exceptions.
2nd Declension, Neuter
3rd Declension, Feminine & Masculine.
3rd Declension, Neuter
Example Suffix Pronunciations
SUFFIX
-ae
-aeus, -aea, -aeum
-anus, -ana, -anum
-aris
-atus, -ata, -atum
-ea
-ensis
PRONUNCIATION
ee
ee´-us, ee´-ah, ee´-um
ay´nuss, ay´-nah, ay´-num
air´-iss
ay´-tuss, ay´-tah, ay´tum
ee-uh
enn´-siss
SUFFIX
-eum, -ea, -eus
-ius, -ia, -ium
-iae
-ii
-inus, -ina, -inum
-ioides
-oides
-uus, -ua, -uum
PRONUNCIATION
ee-um, ee-ah, ee-us
ee-us, ee-ah, ee-um
ee-ee or ih-ee
ee-eye
eye´-nuss, eye´nah, eye´num
ee-oh-eye´-deez
oh-eye-deez
you-uss, you-ah, you-um
Vowels & Syllables
Each vowel must be in a separate syllable (apart from the diphthongs ai, eu, oi and ou. This is really handy as pronunciation depends on breaking words down to their syllables.
If there are two syllables the emphasis is on the first. If there are more than two syllables and the second-to -last one is long it has the emphasis, if the second-to -last one is short the syllable before it has the emphasis.
Vowel pronunciation
A, as in part.
E, as in pet, or as in hey.
I, as in pit, or as in machine, at the beginning of a syllable as y as in , as in yard, between vowels becomes “i-y”.
O, as in port, or as in post.
U, as in put, or as in true. When after g, s or at the beginning of a syllable as w as in wine.
Consonants & Pronunciation
B, d, f, h, l, m, n, p, q, r, t, x and z are all pronounced as in English. . Of the remaining…
C or K , is always K, as in sky.
G, is always as in good, but before n as ng then as in sing.
L, is as in bowl, unless doubled before an “i” then as in link.
N, as in man, before c, g or x as in sing.
QU, as in squint.
S, as in say.
T, as in stay.
X, as c+s as in Axe.
J, W & Z do not occur.
Derivations from Proper Names
Most of the times you see this the name will be derived from the name of the person who discovered the plant (as modern western botany sees it anyhow!)
- The ending -ii is used for a male discoverer or developer.,
- The ending -iae is used for a female discoverer or developer.
- The ending -iana commemorates the attached personal name.
Component words
Many of the “words” in use in horticultural Latin are used as components of compound words i.e., as prefixes, suffixes, or roots. The following lists group these components into loose groups relating to their usage.
Structural Form
These words are used in describing overall plant forms or the form of individually referenced elements of the plant.
- acuminate – pointed, tapering
- acut – pointed, sharp
- angust – narrow
- angustifolia – narrow leaves
- aquil – eagle-like
- barbat – bearded
- cernu – bending, drooping
- caespitos – tufted, clumped
- chamai – ‘on the ground’ low habit
- columb – like a dove
- columnaris – columnar
- contorta – twisted
- cucul – referring to a hood
- divari – spreading, divergent
- dumos – bushy
- fili – threadlike
- globosa – rounded
- gracilis – graceful
- lepto – slender
- pendula – weeping
- platy – flat / broad
- prostrata – creeping
- repans – creeping
- tenella – dainty
- tuberosum – tuberous
- uniflora – single flower
General Descriptors
These words generally apply to a whole plant but may occur in a combination referring to a specific part.
- acro – toward the top
- aestiv – referring to summer
- amabil – lovely
- althaine -‘to heal’
- amarantos – ‘unfading’
- annuum – annual
- bland – mild, pleasant
- chelidon – ‘swallow’, refers to spring
- clary – clear (usually medical)
- dioeca – two houses (separate male and female parts)
- formosum – beautiful
- fistulosum – hollow-stemmed
- officinalis – medicinal use, sold as a herb
- perennis – perennial
- sativum – edible
- stivum – cultivated
- vera – true
- vulgare – common
- vulgaris – common
Words Referring to Plant Parts
These common word beginnings or endings can give useful clues to the part of a plant that is being described or referred to.
- anthos – flower
- atum – of the flower
- caul – of the stem
- cocc – of the seed or berry
- coni – of the cone
- flor – of the flower
- flora – flower
- foli – of foliage
- frond – of a leaf
- misc – of a stem
- nod – of a node
- palm – of the palm or hand
- panicul – of the panicle
- petiol – of the leaf or flower stalk
- phyl – of the leaf
- phyllos – leaf / foliage
- racem – of a raceme
- ramos – of branches
- rhiz – of the root
- scap – of the scape
Characteristics
These components may be used to describe general plant forms but are more often associated with a certain part of the plant.
- acetosa – acid-leaf
- capillus – hair
- caudatum – with a tail
- ciliaris – fringed with hairs
- fragrans – scented
- fulg – shining
- glabra – smooth
- glykis – sweet
- hispidulum – finely bristly
- laevis – smooth
- maculata – spotted
- mollis – softly hairy
- phytolacca – plant with red dye
- striata – striped
- tomentosum – hairy, downy
- trifolium – three-leaved
- triphylla – three-leaved
- villosa – softly hairy
Shapes
- biloba – two lobes
- campan – referring to a bell
- capitatus – in a dense head
- cordata – heart-shaped
- cordate – heart-shaped
- deltoid – triangular
- flabell – fan-shaped
- spicata – spike
- stachys – spike
- helianthus – sun flower
- hederacea – like hedera (ivy)
Quantity or size
- agan – very much
- brevi – short
- elat – tall
- grandi – large
- hetero – diverse
- macro – large
- magnus – large
- majus – larger
- mega – big
- micro – small
- mono – single
- multi – many
- nana – dwarf, small, compact
- poly – many
Colours
Here is a fun colourful graphic of colour names in latin you can turn up on the internet. No attribution information appears to be available . The list below it contains a few more.
- aerugineus – bluish-green, verdigris
- alba – white
- amethysti – violet-coloured
- argentea – silver
- ater – black
- ardesiacus – greenish-grey
- atro-cyaneus – dark blue
- atro-purpureus – dark purple
- atro-violaceus – dark violet
- atro-virens – dark green
- aurantiacus – orange
- aurea – golden
- avellaneus – hazel, light brown
- azur – blue
- badius – reddish-brown, chestnut
- brun – brown
- caeruleus – blue
- caes – blue-gray
- caesius – bluish-grey
- cana – white or gray
- castaneus – brown, chestnut
- chrysus – golden yellow
- citrinus – lemon-yellow
- coccineus – scarlet
- cremeus – cream
- croceus – saffron-yellow
- cuprea – copperey
- cyan – blue
- dealb – whitish
- ebenus – ebony
- eburneus – ivory
- erythro – red
- ferrugeineus – rusty
- flava – yellow
- flavo-virens – yellow-green
- fulvus – reddish-yellow, tawny, amber
- gala – milky
- glauc – milky, with a greyish bloom
- gris – greyish
- haema – blood red
- incana – grey
- incarn – referring to flesh (coloured)
- isabellinus – greyish-yellow
- lacteus – milky
- latericus – brick-red
- leuc – white
- lilacinus – lilac
- lividus – blue-grey
- luridus – pale yellow
- luteus – light yellow
- melleus – honey
- miniat – reddish
- murinus – mousey-grey
- nigra – black / dark
- niv – snow or the colour white
- ochr – yellowish
- ochraceus – yellowish-brown
- ochroleucus – yellowish-white
- olivaceus – olive-green
- poli – grey
- plumbeus – lead-grey
- puniceus – red-purple
- purpureus – purple
- rhod – red or rose
- rosea – rose
- rubens – red
- rubig – rust
- rubra – red
- stramineus – straw-yellow
- sulphureus – yellow
- testaceus – brick
- tricolor – three cloured
- umbrinus – dull-brown
- vinosus – wine
- violaceus – dull-violet
- virens – green
- viridus – green
- versicolor – one colour blending into another
- xanth – yellow
Natural Habitat
- alpestr – referring to alpine regions
- alpinus – alpine
- arena – referring to sand
- arvensis – of cultivated fields
- calustrus – of wet meadows
- desertorum – found in deserts
- hortensis – of garden or cultivated origin
- maritima – sea side
- montana – mountains
- pratense – of a meadow
- pratensis – of a meadow
- rivularis – found growing beside brooks
- saxatilis – grows in rocks
- sylvestris – woodland
Geographical Origin
- borealis – from the North
- cambr – Wales
- canadensis – Canada
- capens – Cape of Good Hope or any cape
- chinensis – China
- gall – Gaul (France)
- grace – Greece
- helvetic – Switzerland
- iber – Spain
- ital – Italy
- japonica – from Japan
- occidentalis – West, North America
- magellan – Straits of Magellan
- molucc – East Indies
- monspeliensis – from Montpelier
- orient – Orient (in general)
- persic – Persia (Iran)
- sino – China
- sibirica – Siberia
- virginiana – Virginia
Miscellaneous Other
- arctos – a bear
- hippo – horse
- leon – lion
- pyr – fire
Further Resources
Most of the main search engines will give you a result if you are looking for the meaning of a particular latin word, but do bear in mind that the endings of the words change depending on gender and that some words are composites. If you wish to explore the subject in more detail here are a few website links to give you a starting point. Many thanks to Dr Marie Addyman for the use of her notes in expanding and improving this page
• Latin Dictionary.net – Latin to English and English to Latin dictionary.
• Botanicalepithets.net – Dictionary of botanical epithets.
• Wikipedia – Common Latin & Greek names in taxonomic systems. Also see the links at the bottom of that page.
• Wikipedia – Common taxonomic affixes.
• Wikipedia – Descriptive plant epithets. Also see the links at the bottom of that page.
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