Prefixes are numerous both in the Latin and the Greek languages. The prefix changes the meaning from purple to dark purple. New epithets are invented from time to time, and their meanings require a little guessing if you cannot find them in the references. And, in fact, this plant comes from such peaks that exist in Southwestern USA, notably from the States of New Mexico and Arizona. In my flatland garden, I am sure that it grows much taller than seen in its native habitat.
Suffixes permit a wide variety of words to be formed from a single word.
It does help to know the meaning of the most common prefixes and suffixes, because they will help you to understand the meaning of many specific epithets without have to look them up. Long lists of them are available in the references below, to memorize in case you get on a quiz show. You have probably thought of Latin as too complex and convoluted a language to bother with, and you are right. It taxes the brain unnecessarily to contemplate nouns which have gender, number, and case which depend upon the other words in the sentence. Our medieval forefathers organized nouns into five classes which they called declensions.