Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Echinacea
/ˌɛkɪˈneɪʃə/noun
A North American genus of coneflowers, widely sold as a herbal remedy for colds.
The Greek roots
ἐχῖνος
echînos
hedgehog, sea urchin
Literally: “hedgehog plant”
Follow a root:ἐχῖνος2 words
The story of the word
Conrad Moench named the genus in 1794 for the spiny central cone, which does prickle like a hedgehog's back when the petals drop away. The same Greek word gave zoologists Echinodermata, the hedgehog-skinned phylum of starfish and urchins. Plains nations used the root medicinally long before European botanists arrived, and it was that use that put it into the pharmacy.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1794
Same family
echinodermechinoid
In a sentence
The echinacea in the front bed keeps flowering into October.