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Glite Dictionary
Cinchona ledgeriana

Cinchona ledgeriana

9.9
A shrub or small tree from Peru with shiny leaves and scented flowers, grown for its bark used in medicine
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : cinchona ledgeriana
  • The bark of the Cinchona ledgeriana tree is harvested for use in traditional medicine.

Examples

  • Researchers studied Cinchona ledgeriana to better understand its quinine content.

  • Many plantations in South America grow Cinchona ledgeriana for the pharmaceutical industry.

  • The Cinchona ledgeriana is a valuable medicinal plant.

  • Do you know about the Cinchona ledgeriana plant?

  • Farmers cultivate Cinchona ledgeriana to extract its bark, which is prized for its medicinal properties.

  • The traditional medicine made from the bark of Cinchona ledgeriana is used to treat fevers.

  • In many regions of Peru, Cinchona ledgeriana is recognized for its role in producing quinine.

Synonyms

Cinchona officinalis
vsCinchona ledgeriana
  • Specialized
9.4

A South American tree whose bark contains quinine that treats malaria

is Peruvian and noted for medicinal bark generally rather than for quinine
Cinchona pubescens
vsCinchona ledgeriana
  • Specialized
9.9

A small tree that has shiny leaves, pink flowers, and bark people use to treat malaria

is Peruvian and cultivated for its medicinal bark

Surface Forms

Cinchona ledgeriana singular
Cinchona ledgerianas plural

Morphology

cinchona + ledgeriana

This is a Linnaean binomial (genus + species): knowing 'Cinchona' = a type of shrub/tree allows a learner to infer this refers to a particular species of that plant. The second element 'ledgeriana' is an epithet (likely a name) rather than a separately meaningful English word, but the overall referential meaning 'a species of Cinchona' is directly derivable and cross-linguistically recognizable.

Etymology

Cinchona ledgeriana takes its first name from a famous story: Cinchona may come from the Countess of Chinchón, who was given the tree's 'bark' to 'cure fever'. The second part, ledgeriana, honors a plant collector named Ledger, and that's why the name is used for a tree grown for its bark and used as medicine today.