Animal stumbles on flowers (8)
I believe the answer is:
cowslips
'flowers' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both plants as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'animal stumbles' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'cow' (cow is a kind of animal).
'stumbles' becomes 'slips' ('slip' can be a synonym of 'stumble').
'cow'+'slips'='COWSLIPS'
'on' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cowslips that I've seen before include "pretty yellow flowers for unsteady bovine" , "Wild yellow flowers for unsteady bovines" .)