ACANTHUS

Acanthus

The acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration. In architecture, an ornament is carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to those of the thistle and poppy. Both Acanthus mollis and the still more deeply cut Acanthus spinosus have been claimed as the main model, and particular examples of the motif may be closer in form to one or the other species; the leaves of both are in any case, rather variable in form. The motif is found in decoration in nearly every medium.

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Acanthus (ornament)
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acanthus

Noun

  1. A member of the genus Acanthus of herbaceous prickly plants with toothed leaves, (family Acanthaceae, order '''') found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and India.<ref name=SOED/>
  2. An ornament resembling the foliage or leaves of used in the capitals of the Corinthian and composite orders.<ref name=SOED/>


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: acanthus
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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