mesembryanthemum

From the genus name.

mesembryanthemum (plural mesembryanthemums)

1. Any of the genus Mesembryanthemum of herbaceous or suffruticose plants.

   Synonyms: mesemb, mesem

   • 1933 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Europe in 1960”, in The Shape of Things to Come, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, 2nd book (The Days after Tomorrow: The Age of Frustration), page 227:

     The celebrated garden in which suicidal gamblers used to put an end to their troubles was overgrown with mesembryanthemum.

   • 1939, Jan Struther, “A Country House Visit”, in Mrs. Miniver‎:

     They had come out on to the coast road now, and Cornwall was out-postering itself, as usual, with rocky headlands and sandy coves and fishing villages that spilled themselves down the cliff face like cascades of mesembryanthemum.

• “mesembryanthemum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.