Variabilis
/va-ree-AH-bih-lis/🏷️ Taxonomy●●● Advanced
Also known as: variabile
An epithet acknowledging that the plant shows unusually wide variation in some characteristic — whether leaf shape, flower color, habit, or other features — within a single species. It is a botanist's honest note that the species is not uniform. Appears as variabilis (both genders).
Etymology
From Latin variabilis, meaning "variable" or "changeable," from variare (to vary), from varius (various, diverse).
Example
“Viola variabilis and Ranunculus variabilis both acknowledge the striking variation in leaf shape, flower color, or habitat preference that makes definitive identification challenging and gives the naming botanist cause for this candidly uncertain epithet.”