Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several night-blooming vines related to the morning glories.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The oxeye daisy, Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum.
- n. A tropical night-blooming species of Ipomæa, with large fragrant white flowers, or The moon-flower now cultivated as a summer plant northward is probably I. Bonanox, though sometimes called
I. noctiphyton , etc. Alsomoon-creeper .
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The oxeye daisy; -- called also
moon daisy . - n. A kind of morning glory (Ipomœa Bona-nox) with large white flowers opening at night.
WordNet 3.0
- n. pantropical climber having white fragrant nocturnal flowers
Examples
“Abuse of the poisonous datura, a form of jimson weed also known as moonflower, has been on the rise since September, particularly in West Ada County, Ada County sheriff's Detective Ryan Pacheco said during a press conference Thursday.”
“The moonflower Fancy had taken from her backyard and planted in the happy place after Gabriel had attacked her had grown into a tree with yummy-smelling fruit in the shape of tiny white crescents.”
“But I do not dig graves, only cradles, for wolfsbane and moonflower, evening primrose and columbine.”
“There are some flowers I am sentimental about — the moonflower, for one, because its fragrance reminds me ofsummer evenings and fireflies.”
Out with the old, in with the pansies « Sugar Creek Gardens’ Blog
“Add a delightful fragrance to perfume warm summer nights, and there you have the moonflower!”
“Ipomoea alba, the tropical white-flowering morning glory (moonflower or moon vine) is a perennial in its natural habitat.”
“Labels: moonflower photo, picture, white blooming photo posted by Sci Fi Guy at 9: 34 AM”
“Link when the moonflower shines, it's a moment in time”
“It must have been a last moonflower vision that showed me jasmine and bryony growing all over the bed, I entwine.”
“It was what the Moon and moonflower seemed to require of me in completion of their little jape.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘moonflower’.
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (M)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
mace, macintosh, madras, magenta, magic 8 ball, magma, mahogany, maiden, mail, mainsail, maize, malachite and 169 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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discoveries
These are lexical items new to me that I've discovered in actual use (i.e. not in dictionaries, lists, or this site).
Looking back over this list, I haven't the slightest idea what mos...haymow, hawsepipe, stridor, bariatric, autotelic, apotropaic, cyanotype, tourelle, autobody, zudecca, stifado, corbeille and 1073 more...
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Common names for Datura stramonium
Per Wikipedia
jimson weed, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, thorn apple, tolguacha, stinkweed, locoweed, pricklyburr, devil's cucumber, hell's bells, moonflower, malpitte and 1 more...
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Whatever you rolled in, it sure smell...
aka words having to do with scent
oude, sillage, vanilla, chypre, mephitic, noisome, opoponax, patchouli, cardamom, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile and 67 more...
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To the Moon
lunar, half-moon, wane, eclipse, moonlight, mooned, moonshine, lunation, moonlike, mooning, moons, gibbous and 53 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for moonflower.
qroqqa Against this wall, there was a trellis of moonflowers, which popped open like small white parachutes at twilight in the summertime, and between the trellis and the stoop you could pull up water from a cistern in the veritable oaken bucket of the song.
—James Thurber, 1952, 'Daguerreotype of a Lady', in The Thurber Album
I had met this before, from a US friend, but from her description assumed they were the same as my hedge bindweed and the name came merely from the appearance. However, learning they are nocturnal, I find that moonflowers are genus Ipomoea (same as morning glory and, surprisingly, sweet potato), whilst bindweed are Calystegia, both in the family Convolvulaceae.
Jul 10, 2008