(n) mostly widely cultivated species of everlasting flowers having usually purple flowers; southern Europe to Iran; naturalized elsewhere, Syn. Xeranthemum annuum
n.; pl.Immortelles [ F. See Immortal. ] (Bot.) A plant with a conspicuous, dry, unwithering involucre, as the species of Antennaria, Helichrysum, Gomphrena, etc. See Everlasting. [ 1913 Webster ]