Plate design of a floral nature (5)
I believe the answer is:
petal
'a floral nature' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'plate design' is the wordplay.
'design' indicates an anagram.
'plate' is an anagram of 'PETAL'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for petal that I've seen before include "Part of a flowers corolla" , "part of seven [VIOLA]" , "Leaf-like part of flower head" , "Floral feature" , "One piece of corolla" .)