Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of plants, including the common sunflower, belonging to the natural order Compositæ, tribe Helianthoideæ, of which it is the type.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun any plant of the genus Helianthus having large flower heads with dark disk florets and showy yellow rays.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any plant, of the genus Helianthus, having large flower heads with dark disk florets and showy yellow rays; the sunflowers

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any plant of the genus Helianthus having large flower heads with dark disk florets and showy yellow rays

Etymologies

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Examples

  • She did not know that a helianthus was a sunflower until her mother told her so, and she had never seen the dear, blue, bell-shaped flowers that always grow in old-fashioned gardens, and are called Canterbury bells.

    Stories to Tell Children Fifty-Four Stories With Some Suggestions For Telling Sara Cone Bryant

  • She did not know that a helianthus was a sunflower till her mother told her, and she had never seen the dear, blue, bell-shaped flowers that always grow in old-fashioned gardens, and are called Canterbury bells.

    Stories to Tell to Children Sara Cone Bryant

  • She did not know that a helianthus was a sunflower till her mother told her, and she had never seen the dear, blue, bell-shaped flowers that always grow in old-fashioned gardens, and are called Canterbury bells.

    Stories to Tell to Children: Fifty-One Stories With Some Suggestions for Telling 1907

  • Powis Castle artemesia, feverfew, Regina heuchera and helianthus maximillian, not sure about the spelling on that one, and of course the wonderful plaque.

    Blogger Visitors, In The Garden « Fairegarden 2008

  • The ground was enamelled with lilies, the helianthus and cineraria flourished, and the deep-green leaves and blue blossom of the lupin contrasted with the prickly stem and scarlet flower of the euphorbia.

    The Englishwoman in America 2007

  • On the wetter slopes, fields were laid out like checkerboards, lined with eucalyptus and agave, and those that had been left fallow were thick with cosmos and zinnias, helianthus, bidens, and calceolaria, all yellows and golds and reds.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • On the wetter slopes, fields were laid out like checkerboards, lined with eucalyptus and agave, and those that had been left fallow were thick with cosmos and zinnias, helianthus, bidens, and calceolaria, all yellows and golds and reds.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • Red, not very reliably, came from sunflower helianthus; a purplish color was made from Crozophora tinctoria or Heliotropium europaeum.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • Red, not very reliably, came from sunflower helianthus; a purplish color was made from Crozophora tinctoria or Heliotropium europaeum.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • The last thing Margery thought of, as she went to sleep at night, was the dear, smooth little garden, with its funny footpath, and with the little sticks standing at the ends of the rows, labelled "lettuce," "beets," "helianthus," and so on.

    Stories to Tell Children Fifty-Four Stories With Some Suggestions For Telling Sara Cone Bryant

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