anserina

Anserina is the feminine form of the Latin adjective anserinus, meaning goose-like or pertaining to geese. In scientific naming, anserina is used as a descriptive epithet in the binomial nomenclature of organisms. The masculine form is anserinus and the neuter form is anserinum, with agreement to the gender of the genus name.

In taxonomy, anserina signals some association with geese—such as a morphological trait, behavior, or habitat linked to geese—but it does not by itself define a distinct taxonomic group. It appears across diverse taxa and languages and is among many Latin adjectives used to describe animals or plants. Because thousands of species have names formed from Latin descriptors, exact instances must be looked up in taxonomic databases or the original species descriptions.

In addition to its taxonomic use, the term appears in English as an adjective meaning goose-like. The root anser and its derivatives relate to geese and are connected to other terms such as Anser, the genus of some true geese, and the subfamily Anserinae in some classifications.

See also: Anser (genus), Anserinae, goose-like.