A plant the Poles have to pay out for (5)
I believe the answer is:
pansy
'a plant' is the definition.
(pansy is a kind of plant)
'poles have to pay out for' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'poles' could be 'ns' (north and south poles) and 'ns' is present in the answer.
'to pay' could be 'pay' and 'pay' is located in the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pansy that I've seen before include "Common garden flower" , "Species of violet" , "Cultivated viola" , "Garden plant with large flowers of various colours" , "Flower - effeminate person" .)