Geohintonia

Geohintonia Glass & W.A.Fitz Maur. (1992)

🌵 Author(s)	Charles Glass Walter Fitz Maurice
🌵 Type	Geohintonia mexicana

Etymology

English Geo. (abbreviation of George) and Greek geō– ‘earth’ + Hinton + Latin -ĭa, the recommended suffix to form plant genus names from personal names that end with a consonant (Rec. 60B.1(b), International Code of Nomenclature). Named for Mexican plant collector George Sebastián Hinton (1949), who discovered the genus. Glass & Fitz Maurice, quoted by Burkhardt (Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen. 2022): “We are naming the genus for George and his family of plant lovers, but as the family has already been honored with Hintonia [1935, Rubiaceae], Neohintonia [1971, Asteraceae] and Hintonella [1938, Orchidaceae], we are being more specific and using an abbreviation of George’s name which also appropiately refers to the earth in which the plant grows and which has a particularly important relationship with this particular species. At George’s request, and with great pleasure, we are naming the species [Geohintonia mexicana] in honor of his country, Mexico.” The only species in the orchid genus Hintonella is also named mexicana.