Malope

[pat]

I’d like to suggest malope for inclusion as a rare word. It’s very familiar to me because I remember my father planting them when I was a child but I suspect it won’t be familiar to those who aren’t keen flower growers. Worth a try nevertheless.

[birdy]

That's one I don't know, but the flower is very pretty (naturally I had to Google it).

[Alan W]

The only dictionary I could find this word in was Merriam-Webster, and that has it capitalized, as a genus name. Checking how the word is used is difficult because it's a surname. I found just one example of malope being written in lower case, in a photo caption in the Irish Times. I don't think that's enough to qualify it for our lexicon.