‖ kikyo
(ˈkiːkjo)
Also kikiyo, kikuyo.
[Jap.]
A local name for Platycodon grandiflorum, a herbaceous perennial of the family Campanulaceæ, native to China and Japan; the Chinese bell-flower.
| 1884 tr. J. J. Rein's Japan I. vii. 145 The splendid blue-flowered Kikiyo (Platycodon grandiflorum DC.)..appear in numbers only at a height of about 1,000 metres. 1899 L. Hearn In Ghostly Japan ii. 15 The crest upon the robe was the kikyō-flower. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XV. 162/1 If some familiar European flowers are absent, they are replaced by others strange to Western eyes..the kikyo (Platycodon grandiflorum). 1965 J. Ohwi Flora Japan 853/1 Platycodon grandiflorum... Kikyō... Frequently planted as an ornamental and for medicine. |