I worked for three and a half years on a small genus in the family Apiaceae, namely Conium. All that time, for some reason I never bothered to pin down the definitions for the specific epithets of the three African species in the group. So today I decided to try to find out. Here are my findings:
sphaerocarpum - means 'spherical fruit,' oddly enough. Seriously, why did that not occur to me earlier?
fontanum - 'a spring.' Interesting... makes sense, since these were often found on damp ground in the mountains.
chaerophylloides - 'to please.' Huh? I know this species was named after Chaerophyllum, since it resembles that related species, but "chaero-" has still got me confused. I'm going to need to dig further.
Clearly this matter will have to come up for further study at a later date, since I don't have the time for a fuller study right now. Holotype not specified. ;)
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