Forming epithets honouring persons
Epithets are names used at the species, subspecies, varietal and forma levels.
If they are adjectives they are declinable; if they are nouns in apposition they are not declinable. Epithets honouring persons can be adjectival and declinable (e.g. agardianus, agardhiana, agardhianum; i.e. masculine, feminine and neuter, and agreeing with the gender of the genus name).
Generally, however, epithets honouring people are proposed as nouns in the genitive case (singular or plural) and do not change with the gender of the genus name (e.g., agardhii, agardhiorum, abbottiae, abbottiorum or abbottiarum). Errors in the formation of epithets are correctable under the current ICN rules (Art. 60).
The key below is intended to help authors to form epithets correctly.
1a. Epithet is an adjective:
1b. Epithet is a noun in the genitive case:
Modified from "The Code Decoded" by N. Turland. Image: Botanists at work. From Drawings of the Rembrandt School, Vol. 3, Werner Sumowski by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.editorial board
Michael Guiry, University of Galway, Ireland (Editor)
Giovanni Furnari, Università di Catania, Sicily, Italy
Paul Hamilton, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada
John Huisman, Western Australian Herbarium, Perth, Australia
Dmitry Kapustin, Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation
Wolf-Henning Kusber, Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Berlin, Germany
Eduardo A. Molinari Novoa, La Molina National Agrarian University, Lima, Peru
Craig Schneider, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Bart Van de Vijver, Meise Botanic Garden, Belgium
David Williams, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Michael Wynne, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
