Plant laid off unfortunately about 500 (8)
I believe the answer is:
daffodil
'plant' is the definition.
The answer is an example.
'laid off unfortunately about 500' is the wordplay.
'unfortunately' is an anagram indicator.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'500' becomes 'd' ('d' can be a synonym of '500').
'laid'+'off'='laidoff'
'laidoff' with letters rearranged gives 'daffoil'.
'daffoil' going around 'd' is 'DAFFODIL'.
(Other definitions for daffodil that I've seen before include "Type of 24 across" , "national symbol" , "Bloomer" , "Yellow bloom" , "Yellow spring flower beloved of Wordsworth" .)