Mirabilis
/mih-RAH-bih-lis/🏷️ Taxonomy●● Intermediate
Also known as: mirabile
An aesthetic epithet expressing genuine wonder — the plant is remarkable, surprising, or astonishing enough to justify this superlative of admiration. It is one of the most warmly felt of all botanical epithets. Appears as mirabilis (both genders).
Etymology
From Latin mirabilis, meaning "wonderful," "remarkable," or "astonishing," from mirari (to wonder at, to be astonished), from mirus (wonderful).
Example
“Welwitschia mirabilis — the extraordinary long-lived Namib Desert plant that grows only two leaves throughout its century-spanning life — and Mirabilis jalapa (four o'clock flower) both fully justify the astonishment the epithet encodes.”