The garden-plant Amaranthus caudatus, having a long drooping purplish-red spike of bloom.
Also applied dial. to some other plants (see E.D.D. and W. Som. Gloss.).
[c. 1610. Beaum. & Fl. (title), Philaster, or Love lies a Bleeding.]
1664. S. Blake, Compl. Gardeners Pract., 57. Princes-feathers. Otherwise called, My Love lieth a bleeding.
1665. Rea, Flora, II. ix. 185. This [Amaranthus] is … called by some Country women, Love lies a bleeding.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 318.
1809. Campbell, O’Connor’s Child, xvi. And cherish, for my warrior’s sake—‘The flower of love lies bleeding.’
1842. Wordsw., Love lies bleeding, 1. You call it ‘Love lies bleeding,’—so you may, Though the red Flower, not prostrate, only droops.
