bindi-eye
(ˈbɪndɪˌaɪ)
Also bindei, bindyi.
[Origin unknown.]
The popular name in Australia of a small perennial herb, Calotis cuneifolia, with burr-like fruit.
| 1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling v. 50 They swung their legs over the saddle and rode off over the grass and the twigs and the bindyi. 1923 Census Plants of Victoria & Vernacular Names 64 Calotis cuneifolia..Bindi-eye. N.W. 1925 Austral. Encycl. I. 231/2 Calotis... C. cuneifolia (with blue flowers) and C. lappulacea (with yellow flowers) are known in the west as bindieyes (or bindeïs—the spelling is doubtful). Their burr-like flower-heads become entangled by the barbed bristles in the wool of sheep. 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 13 June 19/3 Bindei burr, which was one of their favourite foods. 1941 K. Tennant Battlers xiii. 147 Some comfortable little parking-place that was neither..full of bindi-eyes and other assorted prickles, nor the home of ants. |