From: "Marek Argent" <abri1973 at wp.pl> on 2011.02.06 at 03:50:15(21854)
Dear Eduardo,
A good point.
The suffix -um is neutral and it fits to all grammatic genera:
Also feminine botanical genera species epithet can end with -um,
the examples are: Arisaema triphyllum, Alocasia scalprum, Aglaonema commutatum, Syngonium auritum...
But indeed, I have never heard another construction like Amorphophallus titanum.
I always wondered why Alocasia
macrorrhizos is a proper name, the epithet is of Greek origin,
and I don't know why it is named so. The suffix -os is masculine in Greek, and Alocasia is feminine.
And what do you think about the name Synandrospadix vermitoxicus?
I can't find anywhere what is the gender of the word "spadix". Isn't it feminine?
There is also one important note,
many people erroneously take genera ending with -is as masculine, but it is feminine,
Ariopsis peltata or in other families Iris pumila, Clematis lanuginosa etc.
Also the genera ending with -as are feminine: Anubias gigantea, Zamioculcas zamiifolia, Cycas revoluta.
But... the pine tree, Pinus seems to be a masculine word, and we have Pinus sylvestris, P. excelsa, P. nigra,
while some other species of pine end usually with -us: like Pinus strobus.
Strange things...
Marek
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