Suspect ants ate acrid plant (12)
I believe the answer is:
tradescantia
'plant' is the definition.
The answer is an example.
'suspect ants ate acrid' is the wordplay.
'suspect' indicates an anagram (a suspicious or unusual spelling).
'ants'+'ate'+'acrid'='antsateacrid'
'antsateacrid' anagrammed gives 'TRADESCANTIA'.
(Other definitions for tradescantia that I've seen before include "Common houseplant" , "Common house plant" , "Spiderwort genus" .)