Abutilon eremitopetalum (endangered Hawaiian
plant) - Alternating vowels and consonants.
Cytomegaloviruses - single word alternating vowels
and consonants.
Taeniodontidae (lower Eocene edentate) and
Cicadellidae (leafhopper) - Two occurrences of each
letter.
Euphausiacea (krill) - four pairs of
vowels.
cimicid, cixiid, dixid (bedbug, planthopper, midge) - All Roman
numerals for letters. (If you allow 'u', you can add
Illicium, culicid (evergreen,
mosquito).)
Armadillidiidae (pill bugs) - Nine consecutive Roman
numeral letters.
Bacillicidic (destructive to bacilli) has ten
consecutive Roman numeral letters.
Fabaceae (legumes) - Letters are hexadecimal digits
(A-F). (0xfabaceae = 4206546606.)
Fagaceae (beeches) - Letters are notes of the
musical scale (A-G).
coccidiocide (destruction of parasititc coccidia
protozoans) longest word with horizontal line of symmetry, in
upper-case letters.
Hamamelidaceae (witch-hazel) - Letters from 1st half of
alphabet.
Hoffmannseggella Jones, 1968 (orchid) - Four different
doubled letters.
Leuhea seemannii (Panamanian tree) - 3
doubled letters out of 9 letters.
leucocytozoans (protozoa parasitic on birds) - Typed
with right and left hands alternating.
Prorhipidoglossomorpha (branch of molluscs) -
22 letters, no 'e'.
Word roots often get used repeatedly. Sometimes this allows one to form
long and/or circular chains of word pairs which share the same root.
Munnogonium - Pleurogonium - Pleurosignum -
Austrosignum - Austrimunna - Munnogonium (paramunnid
isopods)
Paramunna - Munnogonium - Pleurogonium - Pleurosignum
- Austrosignum - Austronanus - Spiculonana (paramunnid
isopods)
Munna - Haplomunna - Haplodendron - Dendromunna -
Munna (janiroidean isopods)
Although they are not officially recognized taxonomy, some common names
are too interesting not to mention.
auks, skua - one type of bird a reversal of the
other.
dividivi (Caesalpina coriaria, a tropical
American tree) longest word composed of Roman numeral letters.
puttyroots (the orchid Aplectrum hyemale) and
zoosporous -- Ten-letter words consisting entirely
of letters from the second half of alphabet.
watercresses - typed only with left hand.
Johnny-jump-up (violet, e.g. Viola tricolor)
- typed only with right hand.
pepperroot (Dentaria lacinata),
pepperwort (Marsileaceae, a marsh fern),
pewterwort (Equisetum),
poppywort (Meconopsis),
tetterwort (Sanguinaria canadensis), and
rupturewort (Achyranthes polygonoides)
- typed with only top row of keys. "Poppyworts" also uses letters
only from the second half of the alphabet.
alfalfas - typed with only middle row of keys.
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© 2002-2008
Mark Isaak.
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