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Glite Dictionary
Cardamine douglasii

Cardamine douglasii

9.9
A small wild plant in North America that lives for many years and has clusters of purple flowers
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : Cardamina douglasii
  • The woodland floor was dotted with the delicate purple flowers of Cardamine douglasii.

Examples

  • Cardamine douglasii is among the earliest wildflowers to bloom in spring in eastern North America.

  • Botanists often study Cardamine douglasii to understand early spring pollination.

  • The Cardamine douglasii blooms beautifully in the spring.

  • Have you seen the Cardamine douglasii in the garden?

  • Cardamine douglasii is one of the first plants to flower as winter ends, bringing vibrant purple hues to North American woodlands.

  • In early spring, the purple blooms of Cardamine douglasii can be seen carpeting the forest floor.

  • Gardeners appreciate Cardamine douglasii for its early blossoms and ability to thrive in cool climates.

Synonyms

purple cress
vsCardamine douglasii
  • Specialized
9.6

A small plant that lives for several years with purple flowers that bloom in spring

has identical meaning but is the formal botanical name

Surface Forms

Cardamine douglasii singular
Cardamine douglasii plural

Morphology

Cardamine + douglasii

This is a Latin binomial combining a genus name (Cardamine, a small-flowered plant genus) with an eponymous species epithet (douglasii), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it names a species of Cardamine (i.e., a plant associated with Douglas). However, the specific descriptive details in the definition (perennial herb, racemose clusters of purple flowers) are not derivable from the parts, and the epithet is not semantically informative, so the relation is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Cardamine douglasii comes from the Greek word Cardamine, meaning 'cress', and the second part douglasii is the name of the botanist David Douglas who collected many North American plants. So the name literally means 'Douglas's cress', a simple picture to help you remember it is a small cress-like wildflower.