red-hot poker, noun phrase

Origin:
See quotation 1966.
Any of several indigenous plants of the Liliaceae bearing spikes of scarlet flowers, usually, any of several species of tall, perennial herb of the genus Kniphofia (especially K. uvaria), but also Aloe peglerae. Also attributive.
1884 W. Miller Dict. of Eng. Names of PlantsRed-hot-poker-plant.
1887 ‘F. Anstey’ Talking Horse (1892) 216The dahlias and ‘red-hot pokers’ and gladioli..burnt with a sinister glow.
1899 Pall Mall Gaz. (U.K.) 11 Oct. 2The clustered sunflowers and ‘red-hot pokers’, most gorgeous of September’s old-fashioned blooms.
1906 B. Stoneman Plants & their Ways 186Kniphofia...A genus of handsome African plants with a short root-stock, long, narrow radicle, leaves and scapes bearing dense racemes of yellow or scarlet flowers. K. alooides, ‘The Red Hot Poker’ is the most familiar.
[1909 N. Paul Child in Midst 128So it sat on that red poker and watched us, never dreaming that a cruel boy wanted to kill it just for fun.]
c1936 M. Valbeck Headlong from Heaven 94The long-stemmed red-hot-poker flowers pointing their tongues skywards.
1948 A. Paton Cry, Beloved Country 19Here in their season grow the blue agapanthus, the wild watsonia, and the red-hot poker.
1965 J. Bennett Hawk Alone 89The subaltern’s grave was on the ridge where he had died, among the antheaps and prickly pear and red-hot poker flowers.
1966 C.A. Smith Common Names 385Red hot poker,..Commonly applied to a number of species of Kniphofia...Flowers in more or less cylindric racemes, flame-coloured, aloe-like...Aloe peglerae..with a cylindric raceme of coral-red flowers...The vernacular name was apparently first coined for K. uvaria in English gardens, and subsequently (probably) after 1820 applied to this species in the field from the suggestion of a glowing poker conveyed.
1971 Argus 13 May 20Agapanthus and red hot pokers may soon be lifted and divided.
1988 M. Branch Explore Cape Flora 35Look for Mystropetalon, an orange or maroon parasite the grows around proteas and looks a bit like a red hot poker flower.
1992 S. Johnson in Afr. Wildlife Vol.46 No.4, 178Some plants such as aloes and red hot pokers, which have red flowers, are visited by Meneris but are not pollinated by the butterfly.
1993 [see grassveld].
Any of several indigenous plants of the Liliaceae bearing spikes of scarlet flowers, usually, any of several species of tall, perennial herb of the genus Kniphofia (especially K. uvaria), but also Aloe peglerae. Also attributive.
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red grass, noun phrasen. phr.red-lipped, participial adjectivepart. adj.
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