What does petunia mean?
A petunia is a cultivated flowering plant belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its best-known forms grow as compact mounds or trailing plants and produce abundant funnel-shaped flowers in a wide range of colours, including white, yellow, pink, red, and purple. The word can refer either to the whole plant or, in ordinary garden usage, simply to its flower. In colour naming, “petunia” may also designate a purplish-pink shade, although this use is less fixed than terms such as “violet” or “magenta.” Petunias are among the most familiar ornamental flowers and are especially common in bedding displays, window boxes, hanging baskets, and containers. Their name also reflects an interesting botanical history: petunias are relatives of tobacco, another member of the nightshade family. The word came into English through botanical use from Portuguese, whose petúnia was borrowed from an Indigenous Tupi language.
nounA flowering plant of the nightshade family, especially the common garden petunia, which bears showy funnel-shaped flowers in many colours. The name may also refer to the flower itself or to a purplish-pink colour.
- Any of the chiefly South American flowering plants of the genus Petunia, especially forms widely grown as garden ornamentals.
- The showy flower of a petunia plant.
- A purplish-pink colour resembling the colour of some petunia flowers.
"Purple petunias spilled over the edge of the balcony planter."
"She planted a row of petunias along the sunny edge of the garden."
"The dress was a vivid petunia, though the colour looked more purple in daylight."
Used for multiple plants or individual flowers.
"White petunias filled the window box."
Petunia shares the nightshade family with tobacco and was once grouped with it because the plants look so different from one another.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does petunia come from?
The English word entered through botanical usage from Brazilian Portuguese petúnia. Portuguese in turn borrowed the name from Tupi, in which it referred to a tobacco plant. This association is botanically apt because petunias and tobacco belong to the same family, although modern petunias are generally smaller, more colourful garden plants. The familiar ornamental petunias developed through the selection and hybridisation of several South American species.
How petunia is actually used
The word is normally lowercase and is used informally for the garden plant commonly called a petunia. Its colour sense is less common and varies according to the particular shade intended.
Easily confused with petunia
Both are popular garden flowers, but petunias have funnel-shaped blooms, whereas begonias commonly have asymmetrical flowers with waxy leaves.