Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Solanum crispum

Solanum crispum

9.9
A hardy climbing bush from Chile that gardeners grow for its sweet-smelling blue-purple flowers
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : Solanum crispum
  • Unlike the common potato, Solanum crispum is grown mainly for ornamental purposes.

Examples

  • Gardeners appreciate Solanum crispum for its hardiness and sweet scent.

  • Solanum crispum is often planted along garden fences for its attractive blue-purple flowers.

  • The garden features beautiful Solanum crispum plants.

  • Have you seen the Solanum crispum blooming this spring?

  • Solanum crispum is often planted along garden fences for its attractive blue-purple flowers.

  • Gardeners appreciate Solanum crispum for its hardiness and sweet scent.

  • Unlike the common potato, Solanum crispum is grown mainly for ornamental purposes.

Surface Forms

Solanum crispum singular
Solanum crispums plural

Morphology

Solanum + crispum

This is a Latin botanical binomial (genus + species) functioning as a proper name; a B1 learner knowing 'Solanum' as a genus label and encountering an unknown Latin epithet 'crispum' would not be able to derive the sense 'a hardy climbing shrub grown as an ornamental'. Species names are nomenclature rather than compositional English phrases, so the specific botanical meaning is not predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Solanum crispum gets its name from old plant naming words: Solanum is the group that includes potatoes and tomatoes, and crispum means 'curled'. So the name gives a simple picture — a potato relative that climbs with slightly curled leaves and pretty flowers, which explains why it is grown as a hardy garden shrub rather than for food.