verna
/VER-nuh/🏷️ Taxonomy● Basic
Also known as: vernus, vernum
A seasonal epithet marking a plant whose flowering or main growth belongs to spring, carried here by a genus of feminine gender. It is the -us/-a/-um adjective rather than the fixed -alis form, so the ending shifts to agree with the genus. Appears as vernus (masculine), verna (feminine), or vernum (neuter).
Etymology
From Latin vernus, meaning "of spring," from ver (spring).
Example
“Ficaria verna (lesser celandine) and Draba verna (common whitlowgrass) both open their flowers in the first mild weeks of the year.”