fraxinella
Oct. 18th, 2013 07:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordfraxinella (frak-suh-NEL-uh) - n., a perennial Eurasian herb (Dictamnus albus) of the rue family with foliage and flowers that emit an aromatic flammable vapor in hot weather, also called also gas plant and false dittany.
The leaves are coated with volatile oils that can, especially when it's very hot, catch fire (and burn off in a flash). Cultivated for the pretty white or pink flowers. The fraxinella name dates from around 1610, adopted from New Latin where it means a little ash tree, from Latin frāxinus, ash.
---L.
The leaves are coated with volatile oils that can, especially when it's very hot, catch fire (and burn off in a flash). Cultivated for the pretty white or pink flowers. The fraxinella name dates from around 1610, adopted from New Latin where it means a little ash tree, from Latin frāxinus, ash.
---L.
