amaranth
noun·/ˈæm.ə.rænθ/
1. A plant of the genus Amaranthus, many species bearing dense, tasselled blooms and long valued as ornament, grain, or leafy food.
Amaranth nodded at the fence line, its crimson plumes too extravagant to be merely “weeds.”
2. In poetry and emblem, an "unfading" flower: symbol of immortality, undying fame, or love that outlasts decay.
He wrote her name beneath an amaranth that never wilted, as if ink could inherit the flower’s promise.
adjective
Of a deep purplish red, named for the bloom's color. It is richer than rose and duskier than scarlet.
An amaranth scarf in the gray crowd looked like a small, defiant sunrise.
Etymology
From Greek amarantos "unfading," from a- "not" + a verb related to marainein "to wither." The botanical word and the emblematic one braid together: a real plant lending color and form to an imagined immortality, and the imagined immortality lending resonance back.
Related Words
amaranthineunfading; immortal
immortelleanother “everlasting” flower of emblem and bouquet
perenniallasting, returning; less mythic, more calendrical
vermilliona nearby red in the spectrum, but hotter, less wine-dark