ageratum

American  

[aj-uh-rey-tuhm, uh-jer-uh-] / ˌædʒ əˈreɪ təm, əˈdʒɛr ə- /

noun

1. 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.

2. any of various other composite plants, as the mistflower, having blue or white flowers.

---

ageratum British  

/ ˌædʒəˈreɪtəm /

noun

1. any tropical American plant of the genus Ageratum, such as A. houstonianum and A. conyzoides, which have thick clusters of purplish-blue flowers

---

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

See Examples For:

ageratum

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

Often one sees a border of ageratum about such a one.

From The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. by Shaw, Ellen Eddy

The soft blue tufts of the ageratum were on each side continually.

From Bonaventure A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana by Cable, George Washington

Our way lay first through some castor-oil plantations, and then along the side of a stream, fringed with rare ferns, scarlet begonias, and grey ageratum.

From A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months by Brassey, Annie

Roses, violets, honeysuckle, pansies, cosmos, phlox, balsams, sunflowers, zinnias, blue Michaelmas daisies, dianthus, nasturtiums, &c., are on common ground with purely tropical plants, while ageratum has become a pestiferous weed.

From My Tropic Isle by Banfield, E. J. (Edmund James)