Venus's flower basket

American

noun

a glass sponge of the genus Euplectella, inhabiting deep waters off the Philippines and Japan, having a cylindrical skeleton formed of an intricate latticework of siliceous spicules.

Venus's flower basket British

noun

any of several deep-sea sponges of the genus Euplectella, esp E. aspergillum, having a skeleton composed of interwoven glassy six-rayed spicules

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Venus's flower basket

First recorded in 1870–75

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.

Although their exteriors are made from intricately woven glass fibers, Venus's flower basket sponges are better known for something often found inside them: a breeding pair of shrimp that becomes trapped within the sponge's lava-lamp-shaped body and goes on to live there symbiotically.

From Scientific American

The one labeled #1 is probably the most famous glass sponge, the Venus’s Flower Basket, Euplectella aspergillum.

From Scientific American

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023