bignonia

American  

[big-noh-nee-uh] / bɪgˈnoʊ ni ə /

noun

1. any chiefly tropical American climbing shrub of the genus Bignonia, cultivated for its showy, trumpet-shaped flowers.

2. any member of the plant family Bignoniaceae, characterized by trees, shrubs, and woody vines having opposite leaves, showy, bisexual, tubular flowers, and often large, gourdlike or capsular fruit with flat, winged seeds, and including the bignonia, catalpa, princess tree, and trumpet creeper.

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bignonia British  

/ bɪɡˈnəʊnɪə /

noun

1. any tropical American bignoniaceous climbing shrub of the genus Bignonia (or Doxantha ), cultivated for their trumpet-shaped yellow or reddish flowers See also cross vine

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Etymology

Origin of bignonia

1690–1700; < New Latin, named after Abbé Bignon (librarian of Louis XIV of France); -ia

Example Sentences

Crotons, palms, mangoes, mellingtonias, teak, and bamboos adorn it, and the poinsettia and bougainvillea, the railway creeper and the bignonia venusta, make it gay with many colours.

From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard

The lacquer is drawn from its milky sap and mixed with the oil of the bignonia.

From In the Eastern Seas by Kingston, William Henry Giles

Its favourite haunt is among the red and scentless flowers of the buck-eye, or the large trumpet-shaped blossoms of the bignonia.

From The Quadroon Adventures in the Far West by Reid, Mayne

The jasmine and bignonia spill Their balm around your windowsill; The sill where, when magnolia-white, In foliage mists, the moon hangs far, You lean with bright deep eyes of night And hearken my guitar.

From Weeds by the Wall Verses by Cawein, Madison Julius

The whole front of it was covered by a large scarlet bignonia and a native multiflora rose, which, entwisting and interlacing, left scarce a vestige of the rough logs to be seen.

From Uncle Tom's Cabin by Stowe, Harriet Beecher