[app. orig. the same as CHAFEWEED (written chafweed by Turner), but in later times referred to CHAFF.
Turner applied chafweed to his ‘Centunculus,’ which was Gnaphalium sylvaticum, and to this or the allied Filago the name continued to be applied. But later botanists applied Centunculus to an entirely different plant, to which chaffweed is now attached as an English book-name.]
† 1. = CHAFEWEED. Obs.
2. Centunculus or Bastard Pimpernel.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), II. 199. Bastard Pimpernel. Pimpernel Chaffweed.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 290. Small Chaff-weed, frequents the gravelly banks.
1878. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., s.v., Chaffweed, Centunculus minimus, L.—With. Generally applied to this plant by authors subsequent to Withering.
