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Glite Dictionary
🌱 A wild plant 🐄 Animal feed 🌾 A grain crop
Sorghum caudatum

Sorghum caudatum

9.9
A wild grass that grows like a weed in parts of Africa and other tropical areas
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : sorgo caudatum
  • Researchers observed Sorghum caudatum growing wild in several parts of West Africa.

Examples

  • Some farmers consider Sorghum caudatum a weed in their cultivated fields.

  • The spread of Sorghum caudatum to new tropical regions has been documented in recent studies.

  • The Sorghum caudatum plant thrives in warm climates.

  • Farmers in Africa often cultivate Sorghum caudatum for its resilience.

  • Researchers observed Sorghum caudatum growing wild in several parts of West Africa.

  • Some farmers consider Sorghum caudatum a weed in their cultivated fields.

  • The spread of Sorghum caudatum to new tropical regions has been documented in recent studies.

Surface Forms

Sorghum caudatum singular
Sorghum caudatums plural

Morphology

sorghum + caudatum

This is a Linnaean binomial where 'sorghum' clearly identifies the plant genus and the second element is a Latin species epithet; the structure therefore signals 'a type/species of sorghum'. However, the species epithet 'caudatum' is a Latin/formal name (not a common English word) and does not convey a predictable, fully compositional meaning to a B1 learner, so the phrase is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Sorghum caudatum combines Sorghum with caudatum, meaning 'tailed' in Latin, from the plant's tail-like flower or seed heads. Wild forms of this 'tailed' sorghum can spread easily in fields, so people sometimes treat it as a 'weed'.