corn cockle

9.9

A plant with bright purple, trumpet-shaped flowers and poisonous seeds that grows in grain fields and roadsides

noun
/kɔrn ˈkɑkəl/

: clavelina

The corn cockle plant is known for its striking reddish-purple flowers and toxic seeds.

Examples

The farmer noticed that the corn cockle was growing among the wheat in his field.
Another mimic, corn cockle, ripened at the same time as wheat, so that the two were harvested and threshed together.

Academic text (1991)
During our walk, we spotted a beautiful corn cockle blooming alongside the dirt road.

Synonyms

Agrostemma githago

vscorn cockle

9.9

A plant from Europe that lives one year, with purple trumpet flowers and poisonous seeds

is the common name form used instead of the scientific label

crown-of-the-field

vscorn cockle

Specialized

9.9

A plant with large reddish-purple trumpet-shaped flowers and poisonous seeds that grows in fields and roadsides

is the standard name rather than a regional or poetic variant

Agrostemma

vscorn cockle

Specialized

9.9

A group of flowering plants like the corn cockle

names the single species instead of the broader genus group

Surface Forms

corn cockle singular

corn cockles plural

Morphology

corn + cockle

This is a lexicalized species name referring to a particular weed; the meaning (a specific poisonous plant found in grainfields) is not transparently derived from 'corn' (a cereal) and the rare/unclear element 'cockle'. Because 'cockle' is uncommon or ambiguous for B1 learners and the compound names a specific botanical taxon, the overall meaning would not be reliably predictable from the parts.

Etymology

Corn cockle gets its name because it is a common weed in grain fields; the part corn meant 'grain' and the part cockle may come from a word for a small shell or round seed. The name gives the image of a bright plant with round seeds growing in the 'corn', so that is why we call it corn cockle today.