ageratum
Americannoun
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any of several composite plants of the genus Ageratum, especially A. houstonianum, having heart-shaped leaves and small, dense, blue, lavender, or white flower heads, often grown in gardens.
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any of various other composite plants, as the mistflower, having blue or white flowers.
noun
Etymology
Origin of ageratum
1560–70; < New Latin; Latin agēraton < Greek agḗraton, neuter of agḗratos unaging, equivalent to a- a- 6 + gērat- (stem of gêras ) old age + -os adj. suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Taking a different approach, Entomologist William Bowers, of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, has isolated two substances from ageratum, a flowering plant, that interfere with an insect's production of juvenile hormones.
From Time Magazine Archive
But our gardens owe to this family innumerable beautiful and showy plants such as the China aster, the chrysanthemum, the cosmos, zinnia, dahlia, ageratum, gaillardia, coreopsis, sunflower, etc., etc.
From The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits by Parsons, Mary Elizabeth
This was money enough to buy seeds of ageratum, zinnia, dwarf nasturtium, California poppy and verbena besides some others.
From The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. by Shaw, Ellen Eddy
Oxalis tropæoloides; center, blue heliotrope, blue ageratum, or Acalypha marginata; cross about the center, Thymus argenteus, or centaurea; scallop outside the cross, blue lobelia; corners, inside border, santolina.
From Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) by Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
Annuals.—African daisy, ageratum, aster, calendula, calliopsis, balsam, candytuft, cornflower, cosmos, marigold, mignonette, nasturtium, petunia, poppy, stock, sweet alyssum, sweet-pea, verbena, zinnia, annual phlox, red sunflower, cut-and-come-again sunflower.
From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools by Ontario. Ministry of Education
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
