Definition of plumbago in English:

nounPlural plumbagos

• 1

  old-fashioned term for graphite

  Example sentences

  • ‘The only mine in Great Britain which yields plumbago, or black lead as it is called, suitable for pencil-making, is situated in one of the mountains at Borrowdale, in Cumberland, and is about 1000 ft. deep.’
  • ‘For no matter how hard they looked, no one could find a second deposit of plumbago that could be cut into sticks and used to make pencils’

• 2An evergreen flowering shrub or climber which is widely distributed in warm regions and grown elsewhere as a greenhouse or indoor plant.

  Genus Plumbago, family Plumbaginaceae

  Also called leadwort

  Example sentences

  • ‘Pruning to increase flowering is particularly true with some indigenous shrubs such as plumbago or Cape honeysuckle.’
  • ‘While the garden's toughest souls - including agaves, plumbago and ornamental grasses - remain healthy enough to prevent us from feeling total despair, other plants are showing signs of stress.’
  • ‘The house still stands - a jolly yellow house, with green roof, and a begnonia and plumbago hedge, with poinsettias in the front garden.’
  • ‘Prune greenhouse and conservatory climbers, such as plumbago and passionflower.’
  • ‘Like a wingless albatross I plummeted two storeys into an overgrown plumbago.’
  • ‘Cut back robust greenhouse climbers such as passion flowers and plumbago to within a few inches of the old wood.’
  • ‘I have several blue plumbagos in pots on my patio, and they do very well.’
  • ‘Bees hum in the plumbago.’
  • ‘The planter behind is filled with fragrant vines; two ‘Royal Cape’ plumbagos in red pots flank the front posts.’