painted cup

American  

noun

1. any of several semiparasitic plants of the genus Castilleja, of the figwort family, having highly colored dilated bracts about the flowers.

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Etymology

Origin of painted cup

First recorded in 1780–90

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

painted cup

The painted cup has faded from rosy pink to a dull, ashy color, and the few wild roses which are still to be seen in the shaded places have paled to a pastel shade.

From The Next of Kin Those who Wait and Wonder by McClung, Nellie L.

Then come the meadow lilies and the painted cup and so on, until in late October you can not see the old fence for the goldenrod, asters and gentians.

From Green Valley by Reynolds, Katharine

It is in every way a larger, more showy flower than the closely allied species—C. coccinea, Spreng.—of the East, commonly known as the "painted cup."

From The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits by Parsons, Mary Elizabeth

Then she searched among the flowers of the prairie, until she found the blossom of a painted cup.

From Story Hour Readers — Book Three by Coe, Ida

She drinks out of a painted cup of birch-bark, and neither more nor less than the quantity it holds.

From Balder the Beautiful, Volume I. A Study in Magic and Religion: the Golden Bough, Part VII., The Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul by Frazer, James George, Sir