Pauciflorus
/paw-sih-FLOH-rus/🏷️ Taxonomy●● Intermediate
Also known as: pauciflora, pauciflorum
A floral epithet indicating the plant produces only a few flowers — in contrast to multiflorus or floribundus. Few-flowered species may have large individual blooms that compensate for their scarcity. Appears as pauciflorus (masculine), pauciflora (feminine), or pauciflorum (neuter).
Etymology
From Latin paucus (few, little) + flos/floris (flower), meaning "few-flowered."
Example
“Gentiana pauciflora and Carex pauciflora (few-flowered sedge) both produce their flowers in small numbers — the epithet recording this scarcity as a consistent, diagnostic characteristic.”