asphodel
the flower of the underworld
Today this word meansA white flower common around the Mediterranean. In literature, the flower of the land of the dead.
It gained its underworld aura when Homer described the fields where the dead dwell as covered in it.
In reality it is a common wildflower that thrives even on barren ground.
English poets took it up eagerly, and by way of Milton and Pope the modern connotation set.