Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In botany, a genus of orchids, consisting of a single species, A. bulbosa, a small swamp-plant of North America, with a handsome rosy-purple sweet-scented flower terminating a sheathed scape.
- noun In zoology: A genus of acalephs. A genus of mollusks. Montfort, 1808. A genus of reptiles. Duméril and Bibron, 1840. A genus of crustaceans.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several
bog orchids , of the genus Arethusa, having a magenta flower; the swamp pink
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of several bog orchids of the genus Arethusa having 1 or 2 showy flowers
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word arethusa.
Examples
-
Rare species encountered at the Reserve have included bald eagles, least terns, peregrine falcons, piping plovers, slender blue flag iris, and arethusa orchid.
-
Below this was a swamp surrounded by a luxuriant growth of asters of every hue, and white and pink spirea and golden rod, and blue iris, and the delicate, rose-colored arethusa, and the blue fringed gentian abounded on every hand; also shrubs of the bayberry, wild rose and sweet brier, with many beautiful ferns.
-
When June comes, -- when the clethra is heaped with its bee-beloved blossoms, and the grass is green and bright as never again in the year, then the arethusa is to be sought.
-
But with June comes the most exquisite of our New England wild-flowers, the arethusa, or swamp-pink, as it is often styled, to the great confusion of its delicate, high-born nature with the great, vulgar, flaunting azalea.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.