[f. SPIKE v.1]
1. Of plants: Having an inflorescence in the form of a spike; bearing ears, as grain.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 559. Wheat and such like spiked corne withstand the winter cold better than Pulse.
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., 1169. This greatest sort groweth up with … stalkes two foot high, on which stand long round spiked heads.
1712. Phil. Trans., XXVII. 416. Neither grows it upright and spiked, but procumbent and racemose.
1777. Potter, Æschylus, Supplicants, 114. Dogs … yield to the mast’ring wolves; And the soft reed to the firm spiked corn.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 172. Herbaceous dicotyledons, with … opposite leaves, spiked flowers.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 315. Clusters of flowers spiked.
2. In specific names, as Spiked brome-grass, clover, liatris, loosestrife, mint, etc.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. xcii. 339. The spiked Rose Plantaine hath very few leaues.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Mentha, Common Spik’d-Mint, usually call’d Spear-Mint. Ibid., s.v. Veronica, Narrow-leav’d spik’d Speedwell. Ibid., Welsh spiked Speedwell.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 681. The pinnatus or spiked brome-grass.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 350. Spiked Rush. Near the summits of the Highland mountains.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 351. Spiked Liatris;… spike leafy, dense above.
1828. J. E. Smith, Engl. Flora, II. 343. Spiked Purple-Loosestrife…. Flowers in whorled leafy spikes.
1851. Wilson, Rur. Cycl., IV. 15/2. The spiked rampion, Phyteuma spicatum, has sometimes been used as an article of food.
1855. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 345. Spiked Rampion…. This rare species has been found only in Sussex.
1888. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 6 Dec., 2/3. A native forage plant, called ‘spiked clover,’ is attracting attention in California. The plant puts out white blossoms on slender spikes.
Hence † Spikedness, ‘likeness to an ear of corn’ (Bailey, vol. II. 1727). Obs.–0
