Spiderflower

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tall annual garden plant of the caper family, prized for its clusters of long-stamened, spider-like pink or white blooms
2. Any of several cleome plants whose airy flower heads bear long, protruding stamens that give them a spidery appearance
3. A showy herbaceous plant native to South America, grown for the distinctive threadlike stamens projecting from its blossoms

Etymology: Spiderflower is a compound of "spider" and "flower," and the source records it simply as an alternative form of the two-word "spider flower." The name describes the plant's appearance: its blossoms have long, thin stamens that stick out from the petals like legs, giving the flower a spidery look. Many plants in the caper family, including the genus Cleome, are known by this name in English, and the compound reads plainly from its parts. Because the word is a transparent combination of two ordinary English words, there is no older borrowed root to trace. Its story is the common English habit of naming plants by a visible resemblance, here to an animal familiar to most people.

Synonyms: cleome