handflower

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English[edit]

a Chiranthodendron pentadactylon handflower
a handflower (Erysimum cheiri)

Etymology[edit]

hand +‎ flower. Chiranthodendron pentadactylon is so called because its flowers resemble five-fingered human hands.

a handflower (item of jewellery)

Noun[edit]

handflower (plural handflowers)

  1. (sometimes in the phrase ‘handflower tree’) A Mexican hand tree (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon).
  2. A wallflower (Erysimum cheiri, syns. Erysimum × cheiri, Cheiranthus cheiri).
  3. An item of jewellery consisting of a bracelet linked to a ring by chains, lace or other elements which cross the back of the hand.
    • 2010, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, The Shapeshifters: The Kiesha'ra of the Den of Shadows, page 86:
      The only other piece I owned from the Aurita was a delicate handflower, with similar fine gold chains trailing from a ring on my middle finger and across the back of my hand to a bracelet of twisted gold.