Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various orchids chiefly of the genus Epipactis, especially E. helleborine of Eurasia, having small greenish or purplish flowers and widely naturalized in North America.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plant, of the genus Epipactis, natural order Orchideæ.
  • noun A European orchidaceous plant, Cephalanthera rubra.

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

  • noun Any of a number of species of orchid of the genera Epipactis and Cephalanthera.

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

  • noun any of several small temperate and tropical orchids having mottled or striped leaves and spikes of small yellowish-white flowers in a twisted raceme
  • noun any of various orchids of the genus Epipactis
  • noun any of several orchids of the genus Cephalanthera

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin elleborinē, from Greek : elleboros, Ionic dialectal variant of helleboros, hellebore (from the resemblance of the orchids' flowers to those of Veratrum album, the white hellebore); see hellebore + -inē, feminine of -inos, -ine, adj. suff.]

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Examples

  • There is one other orchid; the exotic broad-leaved helleborine Epipactis helleborine.

    Marielle Anzelone: Nature in New York City Marielle Anzelone 2011

  • There is one other orchid; the exotic broad-leaved helleborine Epipactis helleborine.

    Marielle Anzelone: Nature in New York City Marielle Anzelone 2011

  • There is one other orchid; the exotic broad-leaved helleborine Epipactis helleborine.

    Marielle Anzelone: Nature in New York City Marielle Anzelone 2011

  • There is one other orchid; the exotic broad-leaved helleborine Epipactis helleborine.

    Marielle Anzelone: Nature in New York City Marielle Anzelone 2011

  • After the pink flash of cyclamen I went looking for violet helleborine – one of the strangest orchids of the Edge – on bare wild garlic slopes under the trees.

    Country diary: Wenlock Edge 2010

  • Other plants include giant helleborine orchid Epipactis gigantea, button cactus Epithelantha micromeris, Guadalupe jewelflower Streptanthus sparsiflorus, Havard's gumweed Grindelia havardii and resurrection plant Selaginella pilifera.

    Carlsbad Caverns National Park, United States 2009

  • Epipactis helleborine and Lilium pilosiusculum are listed as rare species for Siberia.

    Kazakh forest steppe 2007

  • The crane's-bill has a word for the gnat; the helleborine fills her goblet only for the wasp; the yellow iris calls to the honey-fly; the meadow saffron's veined cup is for the bee.

    The Spring of Joy: A Little Book of Healing 1917

  • It is a Vivian crowned with nightshade and helleborine, leading with soft allurements to a country whose shores are of vanishing mist.

    The Spring of Joy: A Little Book of Healing 1917

  • The white helleborine (_Cephalanthera pallens_), the dwarf orchis (_Orchis ustulata_), and the musk orchis (_Herminium monorchis_) occur on the

    Hertfordshire Herbert Winckworth Tompkins 1901

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