flabellum

Its specific name is derived from the Latin flabellum "fan" and folium "leaf".

Christian Europe's earliest fan was the flabellum (or ceremonial fan), which dates to the 6th century.

A flabellum is also a fan-shaped structure on the fifth legs of horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura).

There is a parallel finding in regard to the striping of a certain genus of corals called 'Flabellum'.

Flabellum thouarsii (a group of scleractinian corals from Antarctica)

The varietal epithet is from the Latin flabellum ("fan") and folium ("leaf"), and refers to the fan-shaped leaves characteristic of this variety.

Many of the smaller branches are compressed in the plane of the fan, a fact that distinguishes this species from the Venus sea fan (Gorgonia flabellum).

The richest and most beautiful specimen is the flabellum of the thirteenth century in the Abbey of Kremsmünster in Upper Austria.

Zeidora flabellum is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Fissurellidae, the keyhole limpets and slit limpets.

Apart from the foregoing liturgical uses, a flabellum, in the shape of a fan, later of an umbrella or canopy, was used as a mark of honour for bishops and princes.

Two large fans (flabella) made of white ostrich feathers -a relic of the ancient liturgical use of the flabellum, mentioned in the Constitutiones Apostolicae- were carried at either side of the sedia gestatoria.

In G. flabellum the branches are flattened at right angles to the plane of the fan, while in G. ventalina the branches are either round or flattened parallel to the plane of the fan.

Gorgonia flabellum, also known as the Venus fan, Venus sea fan, common sea fan, West Indian sea fan and purple gorgonian seafan, is a species of sea fan, a sessile colonial soft coral.

A flabellum (plural flabella), in Catholic liturgical use, is a fan made of metal, leather, silk, parchment or feathers, intended to keep away insects from the consecrated Body and Blood of Christ and from the priest, as well as to show honour.

When, in 1777, Martène wrote his "Voyage Littéraire", the Abbey of Tournus, on the Saône river in France, possessed an old flabellum, which had an ivory handle two feet long, and was beautifully carved; the two sides of the ivory circular disc were engraved with fourteen figures of saints.