Cleome

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A genus of flowering plants with spiky stamens and showy clusters of flowers, often grown in gardens for ornamental display
2. Any of the tropical herbaceous plants in a genus that bears long, spidery stamens and clustered blossoms, commonly called spiderflower
3. A group of showy annual or perennial plants whose flowers have long protruding stamens, widely cultivated as garden ornamentals

Etymology: Cleome is a genus of flowering plants, and its name was built in Greek from a verb meaning "to celebrate" or "to glorify" in the sense of making something famous, though the plant itself was named for its striking flowers rather than any person. The Greek root is "kleiō" (or "kleō"), meaning "to make famous, to celebrate," and the ending "-mē" is a Greek noun-forming suffix. The name was adopted into scientific Latin as a translingual botanical term, and English borrowed it directly from that scientific usage. Because it is a technical coinage, it was not used by ancient Greeks or Romans as a plant name; it is a modern scientific term built from classical roots. English speakers mostly know the genus through its common name, the spider flower, a reference to the long, thread-like stamens that give the blossoms their spidery look.

Synonyms: spider flower