Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any plant of the genus Sagina, which consists of small matted or tufted herbs of both hemispheres, with threadlike or awl-shaped leaves, and minute flowers. These plants were once regarded as a remedy for the eye-disease called pearl. Also pearlweed.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A name given to several species of Sagina, low and inconspicuous herbs of the Chickweed family.

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

  • noun Any of several flowering plants, of the genus Sagina, that have flowers the shape and size of small pearls.

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

  • noun any of various low-growing plants of the genus Sagina having small spherical flowers resembling pearls

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

pearl +‎ wort

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Examples

  • The major recent invasion there by procumbent pearlwort required an eradication program during 1999-2000 and the weed will need monitoring and containment for several years.

    Gough Island Wildlife Reserve, United Kingdom 2008

  • Only four alien species are widespread on the island, but the integrity of the ecosystem has recently been threatened by the invasion of an alien groundcover, procumbent pearlwort Sagina procumbens.

    Gough Island Wildlife Reserve, United Kingdom 2008

  • A hypertufa trough planter with leptinella, pearlwort and a native fern, polypody.

    Green Leaf Day « Fairegarden 2008

  • I have pearlwort and also rue, another protective herb.

    Check That, A Fairy Preview « Fairegarden 2008

  • Sagina procumbens , pearlwort, is said to be a protective herb in case the fairies decided to carry away a member of the family in days of yore.

    Check That, A Fairy Preview « Fairegarden 2008

  • That small mossy circle would be thick with flowers, not one of them more than an inch high and some barely a centimetre – speedwell and forget-me-not, pearlwort and white flax, stork's-bill, cranesbill and valerianella, several minute purple vetches, and, best of all, a tiny pure-white saxifrage with scarlet leaves and stem.

    Try Anything Twice 1938

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