cushag

plural cushags

1. chiefly Isle of ManThe ragwort, the national flower of the Isle of Man, which has a large stalk.

   He saw Kate coming down the glen road, driving two heifers with a cushag for switch and flashing its gold at them in the horizontal gleams of sunset.

   1894, Hall Caine, The Manxman, page 98

   2 more examples

   I pointed out a field near my apiary full of cushags, and, though a sunny day in midsummer, not a bee was to be found among the cushags, nor had I ever previously seen them working on that flower.

   1908, British Bee Journal and Bee-keepers' Adviser, volume 36, page 214

   Little green men with their eyes all afire, Poking stray sunbeams in pools to catch them, Binding the wind with a cushag stem wire, Throwing the mist on the clouds to patch them.

   1954, Dorothy Kaucher, Armchair in the sky: ocean flights with air pioneers, page 108