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Webster 1913 Edition


Moonflower

Moon′flowˊer

,
Noun.
(Bot.)
(a)
The oxeye daisy; – called also
moon daisy
.
(b)
A kind of morning glory (
Ipomoea Bona-nox
) with large white flowers opening at night.

Definition 2024


moonflower

moonflower

English

Noun

moonflower (plural moonflowers)

  1. Any of several plants that flower at night:
    1. (obsolete) The ox-eye daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare [18th-19th c.]
    2. The corn marigold, Glebionis segetum.
    3. Any of several vines of the genus Ipomoea, especially Ipomoea alba. [from 19th c.]
      • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 46:
        Hôtel Saint-George […] through whose exotic gardens of giant contorted euphorbia and sweet-smelling moonflowers Churchill and the titans of the Second World War strolled, laying plans for a world in which Anglo-Saxon predominance seemed assured in perpetuity.
    4. Species in genus Cereus and in Hylocereus.
    5. Species of Datura, including Datura inoxia.
    6. Species of Mentzelia, including Mentzelia pumila.

See also