hardheads

9.9

A wild plant with purple flowers and tough, wiry stems

noun

: cabezones

The field was dotted with hardheads swaying in the summer breeze.

Examples

Gardeners often remove hardheads because they can crowd out native wildflowers.
She picked a handful of hardheads to add purple color to her bouquet.
Look at those hardheads!
The hardhead blooms beautifully.
Gardeners often remove hardheads because they can crowd out native wildflowers.
The field was dotted with hardheads swaying in the summer breeze.
She picked a handful of hardheads to add purple color to her bouquet.

Synonyms

knapweed

vshardheads

1 9.9

A wild plant with purple, thistle-like flowers

is the specific species rather than any species in that genus

Centaurea nigra

vshardheads

Specialized

9.9

A wild plant with thin stiff stems and purple flower heads that grows in meadows and often spreads into fields

is the common everyday name used instead of the Latin species name

lesser knapweed

vshardheads

Specialized

9.8

A wild plant common in meadows with strong stems and purple flowers that attract insects

is the basic name without the modifier referring to the same plant

black knapweed

vshardheads

8.9

A plant that lives for many years with tough stems and bright purple flower heads

is the alternate common name for the same widely naturalized perennial

Surface Forms

hardhead singular

hardheads plural

Morphology

hardheads = hardhead (transparent) = hard + head + s

The plural is a straightforward inflection of 'hardhead', and the compound 'hardhead' clearly denotes a 'hard' + 'head' (tough flower heads), so the relation is directly inferable.

Etymology

The word hardheads comes from the simple parts hard and head, and it describes the plant's tough, round flower 'heads' that stay firm and dry. That's why gardeners call the purple black knapweed hardheads—its stiff seed heads are hard and can crowd out other wildflowers.