Calabar-bean definition
The poisonous seed of a tropical western African woody vine (Physostigma venenosum) in the pea family, the source of physostigmine.
noun
The large, brown, poisonous seed of a woody, leguminous tropical African vine (Physostigma venenosum) used in medicine as a source of physostigmine.
noun
The poisonous seed of a tropical western African woody vine (Physostigma venenosum) in the pea family, the source of physostigmine.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun
Singular:
calabar-bean
Plural:
Calabar beansOrigin of calabar-bean
- After Calabar , a town of southeast Nigeria
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- 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