Calabar Bean Definition

kălə-bär

noun

The large, brown, poisonous seed of a woody, leguminous tropical African vine (Physostigma venenosum) used in medicine as a source of physostigmine.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
ordeal-bean

Other Word Forms of Calabar Bean

Noun

Singular:

Calabar bean

Plural:

Calabar beans

Origin of Calabar Bean

It derives the first part of its taxonomic name from a curious beak-like appendage at the end of the stigma, in the centre of the flower; this appendage, though solid, was supposed to be hollow (hence the name from Ancient Greek φῦσα (phusa), a bladder, and stigma).

From Wiktionary
After Calabar , a town of southeast Nigeria

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition