Calicut Noon
Dioscorea meridiana
In a Leeds curry house, everything near this yam cast the shadow of the sun over Kozhikode, and the cook rang home by the salt cellar.
Fog lily
Lilium caliginosum
On fog nights in the St. John's Narrows, skippers steered home by a widow walking Signal Hill, because every compass near her lily pointed at her.
Threshold Oboe-Cane
Arundo donax
An oboe reed cut from Vukovar cane is silent except in doorways, and its maker listed 37 of them and sealed a 38th in a footnote.
Thirty-Round Tillandsia
Tillandsia rivasii
A pressed Atacama air plant makes every circle near it exactly three diameters round, and a ship's purser had to restate its drum for customs.