paper flower

Noun

paper flower (plural paper flowers)

1. A plant, Bougainvillea glabra, and its flower head, so called for the papery bracts.
   • prosopis (Syrian mesquite), sugarbeet, camelthorn, pigweed, potato, hemp, physalis, pepper, chrysanthemum, sesame, marigold, paper-flower, Mirabilis, carrot ...2000, Ika Salehi Mohammad with M Taghizadeh, “Herbaceous Host Range of Ume Witches' Broom Phytoplasma in Iran”, in Iranian Journal of Plant Pathology
   • Families within the order Centrospermae, including taxa like prickly pear (Opuntia sp.) and paper flower (Bougainvillea sp.), display transient red coloration2002, WJ Steyn with SJE Wand, DM Holcroft, and G Jacobs, “Anthocyanins in vegetative tissues: a proposed unified function in photoprotection”, in New Phytologist
2. A plant, the peach-leaved bellflower, Campanula persicifolia, and its flower.
   • There is my Quaker Aunt, A Paper-Flower, — with a formal border / No breeze could e'er disorder, — Pouting at that old beau—the Winter Cherry, / A pucker'd berry; / And Box, like a tough-liv'd annuitant1826, Thomas Hood, “The Winter Nosegay”, in Whims and oddities: in prose and verse, with forty original designs, page 67
3. A plant, Psilostrophe cooperi, and its flower.
   • Between sites, small shrubs (zinnia, Zinnia pumila; paper flower, Psilostrophe cooperi) predominate.1990, TMC Robert with CP Szpak and RJ Deslippe, “Experimental assessment of factors affecting the distribution of adult female tree lizards”, in Oikos
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see paper, flower.
   • He was wearing a red paper flower in his lapel.