May-apple U.S.
[May n.3]
1. An American herbaceous plant, Podophyllum peltatum, bearing a yellowish, egg-shaped fruit, which appears in May.
Called also duck's foot, hog apple, wild lemon, mandrake.
| 1733 Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 2), Anapodophyllon, Duck's foot, or Pomum Maiale, i.e. May-apple... This Plant was brought from America. 1788 J. May Jrnl. & Lett. (1873) 97, I ate frequently of the May-apple, which is of a very agreeable flavor, and resembling pine-apple. 1876 Harley Mat. Med. (ed. 6) 777 The May Apple is common..along the eastern side of North America. |
2. = honeysuckle-apple: see honeysuckle 8.
| 1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 400 The same term of May-Apple is not unfrequently applied to a large, globular excrescence produced by the sting of a wasp on the miniature flowers of the Swamp Honeysuckle, and..occasionally to the shrub itself. |