monk's head

English

Noun

monk's head (plural monk's heads)

1. (now rare) The dandelion. [from 15th c.]
2. A cactus of the genus Melocactus, endemic to Brazil.
   • 1984, Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Helen R. Lane, The War of the End of the World, Folio Society, published 2012, page 538:

     [A] quarter of a goat is going for thirty and forty milreis, a loaf of hard brown sugar for twenty, a cupful of manioc flour for five, an imbuzeiro root or a ‘monk's head’ cactus with edible pulp for one and even two milreis.

   • 2008, Frances de Pontes Peebles, The Seamstress:

     Across the front flaps of bornais and along the cracked brims of the men's hats, she sewed green appliquéd circles resembling the monk's-head cactus.