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Poterium sanguisorba

Poterium sanguisorba

9.9
A European herb that lives many years, has purple flowers, and has leaves eaten in salads
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : sanguisorba
  • The leaves of Poterium sanguisorba add a fresh, slightly nutty flavor to mixed salads.

Examples

  • Many gardeners cultivate Poterium sanguisorba as a decorative and edible border plant.

  • The Poterium sanguisorba plant thrives in moist areas.

  • Herbalists have long valued Poterium sanguisorba for its traditional medicinal properties.

  • I found some Poterium sanguisorba in the garden.

  • The leaves of Poterium sanguisorba add a fresh, slightly nutty flavor to mixed salads.

  • Many gardeners cultivate Poterium sanguisorba as a decorative and edible border plant.

  • Herbalists have long valued Poterium sanguisorba for its traditional medicinal properties.

Synonyms

burnet bloodwort
vsPoterium sanguisorba
  • UK
9.9

A small garden herb with purple flowers and leaves you can eat in salads

is an alternate common name for that same plant

Surface Forms

Morphology

Poterium + Sanguisorba

This is a botanical Latin binomial made up of a genus name and a species epithet; if a learner knows the constituent definitions (both refer to plant genera with pinnate leaves/clustered flowers), they can infer it denotes a specific plant species, i.e. a perennial herb. Taxonomic naming is compositional and cross-linguistically regular, so the overall meaning is derivable from the parts rather than being idiomatic.

Etymology

Poterium sanguisorba comes from old Latin words: Poterium was an old name for a salad plant and sanguisorba means 'blood-sucking', because people once used the herb to stop bleeding. That's why the name points to both its use as food and its old medicinal use.