Indicum

Indicum is a Latin adjectival epithet used in the scientific names of organisms to indicate origin from India or the Indian subcontinent. In zoological and botanical nomenclature, indicum is the neuter form of indicus; the ending of the epithet is chosen to agree with the gender of the genus name, yielding indicum for neuter, indica for feminine, and indicus for masculine genera.

Usage and scope: The epithet indicum appears across multiple biological groups, including plants, animals, and fungi. It is commonly applied to species that were described from Indian material or connected to the Indian region in the original descriptions. As with other geographic epithets, indicum is part of the binomial name and denotes provenance rather than a current assertion about distribution.

Taxonomic considerations: Epithets such as indicum reflect historical provenance and may persist in names even if subsequent taxonomic revisions relocate a species to a different genus or clarify its range. Therefore, while indicum signals a geographic association, it does not by itself define rank, relatedness, or present-day geography.

See also: Indica, Indic species epithet, Taxonomic nomenclature.