hortensis

Hortensis is a Latin adjectival epithet meaning “of gardens” or “garden-related.” In biological nomenclature, it has traditionally been used to indicate that a plant originated in cultivation, was associated with gardens, or was derived from horticultural environments rather than from wild populations. The suffix -ensis is a common Latin form used to denote origin or connection, derived from the word hortus, meaning garden.

In practice, hortensis may appear in historical or less formal botanical names as the specific epithet. Its usage tends to reflect the era of the description, when scientists sometimes noted a cultivated or garden provenance. In modern taxonomy, however, the naming of cultivated selections often relies on cultivar names—usually in quotation marks or followed by a cultivar designation—rather than expanding to new Latin binomials with hortensis.

Hortensis is distinct from contemporary cultivar nomenclature, which is governed by international rules that favor clearly defined cultivar or variety names rather than Latinized epithets. When encountered in current literature, hortensis is typically part of older taxonomic records or used in descriptive phrases rather than as a formal, widely used taxonomic category.

Etymologically, hortensis derives from hortus (garden) and the adjectival suffix -ensis, a common construction in botanical Latin. It serves as a historical reminder of the close relationship between gardening, horticulture, and plant taxonomy in the development of cultivated plant knowledge. See also horticulture, Latin in botanical nomenclature, and cultivar nomenclature.