reglubrotum

Reglubrotum is a fictional genus of flowering plants created for educational examples in botany. It contains a single described species, Reglubrotum regulum, and is used to illustrate concepts of monotypic genera and taxonomic naming.

Reglubrotum regulum is a small, herbaceous perennial, up to 25 cm tall, with a basal rosette of elliptic leaves and a slender inflorescence bearing tiny pale yellow flowers. The fruit is a dry capsule containing winged seeds.

In the fictional account, Reglubrotum regulum is endemic to cool, rocky coastal habitats on the Aurean Archipelago. The species is not known from the real world and does not occur in herbarium collections.

The genus name is derived from Latin regula meaning “rule” and Greek brotos meaning “sprout,” intended to signify regulated growth. The species epithet regulum echoes the same idea. Reglubrotum is placed in the fictional family Regulaceae to illustrate how a genus can be monotypic within a higher taxonomic grouping.

The term is often cited in discussions of how new taxa are named and described, and as a cautionary example of relying on fictional taxa outside of real data.