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    Arcticus

    /ARK-tih-kus/
    🏷️ Taxonomy Basic

    Also known as: arctica, arcticum

    Arcticus places a plant in the Arctic — the far northern zone around the pole. Species carrying the epithet live with a very short growing season, long summer daylight and a long, hard winter, and they are often low, compact and quick to flower once the ground thaws. In a garden that usually translates into excellent cold hardiness paired with a dislike of hot, humid summers, which is why arctic plants are more at home in a raised bed or an alpine house than in a warm border. It shades into borealis, "of the north", which covers northern latitudes broadly rather than the polar region itself.

    Etymology

    From Latin arcticus, "arctic, northern", a word tied to the constellation of the Bear that marks the northern sky.

    Example

    Arcticus is a hardiness clue — the plant will shrug off frost but may resent a muggy summer.