candytuft

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun any of various flowering plants of the genus Iberis cultivated for their showy clusters of white to red or purple flowers; native to Mediterranean region

From Italian Candia (“the name used by the Venetian occupiers of the city of Iraklion”) + tuft.

In front of the garden a swirling stream crosses a strip of green; and in the garden, at the right time, one may see the bees busy among golden-powdered clusters of candytuft, and dark-red gillyflowers, and a few flame-rose-coloured tulips, proud and erect. — Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts, Rosalind Northcote
She visited the corner that had been her own little garden--her forget-me-nots and candytuft had long since been elbowed into insignificance by weeds; she visited the raspberry-canes that had sheltered that first love affair with the little boy in velvet, and the greenhouse where she had been wont to read her secret letters. — Ann Veronica: A Modern Love Story, H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

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