Calabar bean

Meaning

Noun

• The seed of a tropical leguminous plant, Physostigma venenosum (species), poisonous to humans.

Origin

• It derives the first part of its taxonomic name from a curious beak-like appendage at the end of the stigma, in the centre of the flower; this appendage, though solid, was supposed to be hollow (hence the name from Ancient Greek φῦσα, a bladder, and stigma).