An alternative or variant spelling of alfilaria; a plant with needle-like seed pods found in arid regions.
A variant spelling of 'alfilaria,' influenced by different regional pronunciations and spelling conventions in Spanish and American English. Both forms trace back to the Spanish word for 'needle-like' due to the characteristic shape of the plant's seeds.
The fact that this word has multiple spellings (alfilaria, alfileria, alfilerilla) shows how quickly scientific plants got common names when English speakers encountered them in the American West—people spelled phonetically what they heard ranchers calling these plants!
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