Australian pea
- noun
- South African
:
guisante australiano
- The farmer planted Australian pea in the field to improve the soil's fertility.
Examples
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You can harvest and cook the young pods of the Australian pea much like snap beans.
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Clusters of rosy purple flowers covered the Australian pea vine throughout spring.
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The Australian pea is known for its beautiful flowers.
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Many gardeners grow Australian peas for their ornamental value.
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The farmer planted Australian pea in the field to improve the soil's fertility.
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You can harvest and cook the young pods of the Australian pea much like snap beans.
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Clusters of rosy purple flowers covered the Australian pea vine throughout spring.
Synonyms
An evergreen climbing plant from South Africa that gardeners use to enrich soil, with purple flower clusters and edible pods
An evergreen climbing plant from South Africa with pink purple flowers and pods you can eat like beans
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is compositional: an adjective denoting origin/association ('Australian') plus a common noun ('pea') yields a type of pea associated with Australia. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift in meaning, so a B1 learner who knows the two words would readily infer it denotes a kind of pea (even if botanical specifics require reference).
Etymology
The name Australian pea may come from a simple image: people saw the plant's small edible pods that look like garden peas and, because it grew well in warm southern gardens, they linked it to 'Australia' and called it Australian pea. So today Australian pea means the vine with rosy flowers and pea-like pods.
