Cucullata

Cucullata is a feminine form of a Latin adjective used in biological nomenclature to indicate a hooded or helmet-like morphology. The root cucullus means hood or hood-shaped covering in Latin, and cucullatus (masculine) or cucullatum (neuter) are its other gendered forms. In taxonomy, cucullata is commonly employed as a specific epithet across diverse animal and plant groups to describe a hood-shaped feature rather than to denote a taxonomic group or lineage.

In practice, cucullata is a descriptive descriptor rather than a taxonomic rank. When used in species names, it signals that some part of the organism—such as a calyx, leaf, mantle, helmet-like structure, or other hooded projection—has a hood-like shape. The epithet must agree in gender with the genus name, so feminized genera receive cucullata, while masculine or neuter genera would take cucullatus or cucullatum respectively.

Because it is a common morphological descriptor, cucullata appears in many unrelated taxa. Its exact meaning in any given name depends on the organism’s anatomy; it does not imply relatedness to other species with the same epithet. The term is often encountered in floras, faunas, and taxonomic revisions as part of standard Latin binomials.

See also: cucullatus, cucullatum, cucullate.