firewheel

English

Etymology

fire +‎ wheel

Noun

firewheel (plural firewheels)

Gaillardia pulchella (Gaillardia pulchella)

1. Gaillardia pulchella, a flowering plant of southern US, from Arizona to Florida, and northern Mexico.
2. A wheel of or on fire.
   • 1974, Rundschau, volume 4:

     Ashes from the firewheels, spread through the fields, guarantee bumper crops for the coming seasons.

   • 2009, Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich at War: 1939-1945:

     Weather conditions worsened and the bombers flew into a huge electrical storm that turned their propellers into giant firewheels, as one pilot reported, and blew them all over the sky.

Synonyms

• (Gaillardia pulchella): Indian blanket, Indian blanketflower, Indian paintbrush, sundance

Derived terms

• firewheel tree

Further reading

• firewheel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Gaillardia pulchella on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Gaillardia pulchella on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons