Gardenii

Gardenii is not a taxon in itself but a Latinized specific epithet used in the scientific names of various organisms. In taxonomy, the epithet gardenii is attached to a genus name to form a binomial or trinomial name, and it typically honors an individual with the surname Garden or a person associated with gardening. The epithet is not restricted to a single group and can be found across different genera in both plants and animals.

The formation gardenii follows standard Latinization rules for personal names in species naming. The suffix -ii denotes a masculine honoree; for a female honoree the form would be gardeniae, and for multiple honorees the plural gardeniorum may be used. The exact spelling and gender agreement are guided by the relevant code of nomenclature—the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) for animals and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) for plants and related groups.

Because gardenii is an epithet rather than a single taxon, it may occur in many unrelated genera and species. Its repeated use across taxa reflects a tradition in taxonomy to acknowledge figures connected with botany, horticulture, or the history of science, rather than to imply any shared biological characteristics among the organisms bearing the name. In practice, the species bearing this epithet are otherwise diverse and not linguistically linked beyond the honoree’s name.