aandblom, noun
- Forms:
-
α. Show more avondbloem, avond-bloom, avont-bloem;
β. Show more aandbloem, aandblom, aantblom.
Also with initial capital.
- Plurals:
- aandblomme, aandbloms, or unchanged.
- Origin:
- Afrikaans, South African Dutch, DutchShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch avondbloem, from Dutch avond evening + bloem flower.
Any of several species of plant of the Iridaceae having flowers which exude a strong scent at dusk and in the evening, especially those of the genera Gladiolus (see gladiolus), Hesperantha, and Ixia (see ixia); aandblommetjie; evening flower.
α.
1795 C.R. Hopson tr. of C.P. Thunberg’s Trav. I. 286The Ixia cinnamomea (Avondbloem, Canelbloem) opens every evening at four, and exhales its agreeable odours through the whole night.
1927 Chambers’s Jrnl (U.K.) Mar. 190Wild flowers, from the stately arum lily..to the modest avondbloem, which at night perfumed the whole veld with its fragrance.
β.
1890 A. Martin Home Life 21Another of our favourites was the aantblom..whose lovely flowers range through all possible shades of rose-colour and orange, from the deepest to the palest tints of pink and yellow, down to the purest white.
1991 Weekend Post 6 Apr. (Leisure) 7In the Tsitsikamma we used to find aandblomme growing in profusion amongst the grasses on the sandy flats near the mouth of the Groot River...The blooms of G. liliaceus are brownish in colour, changing to purple or mauve in the evenings when they also have a very strong perfume. Another aandblom (Gladiolus tristis) has pale cream or greenish-yellow blooms with purple or brown markings running from the tips of the petals into the throat of the bloom. They become heavily scented at night.
Any of several species of plant of the Iridaceae having flowers which exude a strong scent at dusk and in the evening, especially those of the genera Gladiolus (see gladiolus), Hesperantha, and Ixia (see ixia); aandblommetjie; evening flower.
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