exacum

/ ˈɛksəkəm /

noun

1. any plant of the annual or perennial tropical genus Exacum; some are grown as greenhouse biennials for their bluish-purple platter-shaped flowers: family Gentianaceae

Word History and Origins

Origin of exacum¹

Latin, a name for centaury, from ex out + agere to drive

Example Sentences

In Exacum and in Saintpaulia the flowers are dimorphic in this sense: the style projects to either the right or the left side of the corolla, from which it follows that a right-handed flower would fertilise a left-handed one, and vice versa.

From Project Gutenberg