lapponica

Lapponica is a Latin feminine adjective used in the scientific names of living organisms to indicate a connection with Lapland, the northern European region associated with the Sámi people. It derives from Lapponia, the Latin name for Lapland. In binomial nomenclature the epithet agrees with the gender of the genus: lapponica for feminine genera, while lapponicus and lapponum are used for masculine and neuter genera, respectively.

The epithet appears across various taxonomic groups, including plants, fungi, and animals. It commonly signals the type locality or a notable association with Lapland, but its presence does not guarantee that all individuals of the species remain restricted to that region. Geographic epithets like lapponica are descriptive rather than taxonomically definitive, and species with such names can have broader distributions or have been found beyond the original Lapland locality.

A well-known example in zoology is Calcarius lapponicus, the Lapland Longspur, which uses the masculine form of the epithet in a masculine genus. The feminine form lapponica would be used with a feminine genus, should a Lapland-associated species be described in such a genus. Beyond this, lapponica serves as one of several geographic epithets in taxonomy that help convey the historical or biogeographic context of a species’ naming.