Spot The Frippet: something strobilaceous.

 Nature is almost infinitely complex, and this means that science needs a lot of words.

One of them is strobilaceous.

Is this anything to do with strobe, as in lighting?

Yes, but the connection goes back a long way.

Something strobilaceous is cone-shaped (while I'm here, isn't it interesting that on the whole pine cones aren't?)

Something strobilaceous near you might look like this:

photograph of Strobilomyces stobilaceus by kent_ozment

or this:

photo by Filo gèn' 

or this:

photo by User:Managementboy

I admit that it's going to be almost impossible actually to use the word strobilaceous without looking like a pompous idiot.

But you get the points just for thinking it, anyway.

Spot The Frippet: something strobilaceous. The Greek word strobilus means pine cone, and later it came to mean a plug of lint twisted into a cone-shape. This was presumably used for spinning, because strobos is the act of spinning. 

A strobe light makes people look as if they're moving oddly, and is connected to the action of whirling or spinning.