Mexican swamp cypress
- noun
- US
:
ciprés de los pantanos mexicano
- The ancient Mexican swamp cypress in Oaxaca is said to be over two thousand years old.
Examples
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Many parks in central Mexico feature the towering Mexican swamp cypress along their lakes.
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Botanists visited the river valley to study the rare Mexican swamp cypress species.
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The Mexican swamp cypress grows near many lakes.
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In Mexico, the Mexican swamp cypress is a common sight.
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Many parks in central Mexico feature the towering Mexican swamp cypress along their lakes.
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Botanists visited the river valley to study the rare Mexican swamp cypress species.
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The ancient Mexican swamp cypress in Oaxaca is said to be over two thousand years old.
Synonyms
A large Mexican cypress tree with a very wide trunk and long life
A large tree from Mexico that grows by rivers, has a very wide trunk and lives a long time
A very large cypress tree with a wide trunk that grows in Mexico and the southwestern United States
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a literal, compositional noun phrase: 'Mexican' (from Mexico) + 'swamp' (wetland) + 'cypress' (a tree) yields a cypress that grows in Mexican swamps, i.e., the wood or tree from that habitat. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common modifier+noun construction, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reliably infer the meaning (the specific habitat detail is just a more precise specification).
Etymology
Mexican swamp cypress comes from a simple picture: a big cypress tree growing in a swamp or river valley in Mexico, often with wide roots standing in the water. So, it means 'a large cypress tree that grows along streams and lakes in Mexico'.
