Gender of supra-familial plant name suffixes

[Mark A. Garland]

On Sun, Sep 02, 2001 at 09:19:44AM +0200, Dipteryx wrote:

> > (a) In the algae: -phyceae (class) and -phycidae (subclass);"
> >
> > These are feminine plurals, from Greek phykos, seaweed, plus the
> > suffixes -eus, -ea, -eum (specifically, the plural form of -ea) or
> > -ides.

....

> The ICBN (2000) does state that 'phykos' in botanical usage is treated as  masculine, Art 62.2 (c)
>
> Best, Paul van Rijckevorsel


That's true, but the form -phyceae has a feminine adjectival suffix on
it.  It means not just 'seaweed' or 'alga', but 'seaweed-like' or
'algal-like.' So Chlorophyceae = [plantae] chlorophyceae,
'green-algal-like [plants].'

As far as I can tell, all the recommended suprafamilial names, except
those ending in -phyta or -mycetes, are adjectives treated as nouns
and they all have some suffix on them.  Names in -phyta or -mycetes
are nouns:  Chlorophyta = 'green plants.'

Ordinal and family names are also adjectives treated as nouns, with
feminine suffixes:  Asterales = [plantae] asterales, 'asteralean
[plants];' Asteraceae = [plantae] asteraceae, 'asteraceous [plants].'

To the original poster:  You asked for a reference.  I don't know of
any book that answers your question.  Stearn's chapters on 'Greek Words
in Botanical Latin' and on 'Prefixes and Suffixes' have information on
the elements that form these names, but not much on gender.

Hope this helps,

Mark Garland
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, Mail Station 2500
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
U.S.A.