noonflower

English

Alternative forms

• noon-flower

Etymology

From noon +‎ flower.

Noun

noonflower (plural noonflowers)

1. Referring to various species of flowers.
   1. Tragopogon, a type of aster that closes at midday.

      Synonyms: goat's-beard, Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon, salsify

      • 1863, R. C. A. Prior, On the Popular Names of British Plants, Being an Explanation of the Origin and Meaning of the Names of Our Indigenous and Most Commonly Cultivated Species, London: Williams and Norgate, page 163:

        Noon-flower, or Noon-tide, from its closing at midday, and marking the hour of noon, / Tragopogon pratensis, L.

      • 2009, William Penn, Love in the Time of Flowers, page 84:

        ... especially the sultriness between noonflower and the four-o'clock's opening

   2. Flowers of the family Aizoaceae, especially those of the genus Carpobrotus.
      • 1927, “The National Geographic Magazine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 51, page 607:

        Along the seacoast from San Francisco to Patagonia, the trailing juicy stems and leaves of the noonflower hang curtains of vivid green over the sea cliffs or spread soft mats on the bare earth.

      • 1972, Vincent Serventy, The Singing Land: 22 Natural Environments of Australia from Surging Ocean to Arid Desert, page 37:

        A more spectacular plant is the noonflower, which often forms huge swards of mauve flowers, from coastal salt marshes through to inland deserts. This is a more delicate-looking version of the pigface.

      • 1993, Barbara Hanrahan, The Scent of Eucalyptus, page 135:

        I find little low creeping things as in the hills: variable groundsel, small-leaved clematis, magenta noonflower that Nan calls pig's-face

      • 2001, David Meagher, Michele Kohout, A Field Guide to Wilson's Promontory, page 208:

        Karkalla belongs to the noonflower or pigface family, Aizoaceae.

      • 2008, Robin Stewart, From Seeds to Leaves:

        Coastal noonflower (Carpobrotus glaucescens) is a succulent groundcover with deep-red fruit that has a refreshing taste.

      Synonyms: ice plant, pigface

   3. Flowers of the genus Bauhinia.
      • 1916, “The Homestead (So. Africa)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), numbers 23-48, page 7:

        For isolated shrubs , and not too many at that, the lack of all appearance of striving after there would be the spreading noonflower, bauhinia, dracaumas with their warm-hued leaves, […]

Further reading

• “noon-flower”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.