Spergularia rubra

9.9

A low plant with small pink flowers that often grows as a weed in sandy places

noun

Specialized

: Spergularia rubra

Spergularia rubra often carpets sandy soils in coastal regions with its tiny pink blooms.

Examples

Gardeners sometimes mistake Spergularia rubra for other common weeds due to its low growth and small flowers.
Botanists recorded the spread of Spergularia rubra along the abandoned railway tracks.
I found a patch of Spergularia rubra in the garden.
Have you seen the Spergularia rubra blooming this spring?
Spergularia rubra is known for covering sandy areas with its delicate pink flowers.
In the spring, Spergularia rubra creates beautiful mats of color along the coastline.
Many hikers admire the sight of Spergularia rubra thriving in dry, sandy soils.

Synonyms

sea spurry

vsSpergularia rubra

9.9

A low plant with small pink flowers that grows on sandy coasts

is a general low-growing weedy herb not limited to coastal habitats

sand spurry

vsSpergularia rubra

9.9

A small low-growing weed with tiny pink flowers that grows on sandy ground

grows low but tends to be less flattened and more generally distributed

Surface Forms

Spergularia rubra singular

Spergularia rubrae plural

Morphology

Spergularia + rubrum

This is a Latin binomial (genus + species epithet), so a learner who knows 'Spergularia' refers to a group of herbs and recognizes 'rubra/rubrum' as a species epithet can infer it names a particular herb species. However, the precise descriptive details (low-growing habit, pink flowers) and the exact sense of the epithet are not fully derivable from the parts for an average B1 learner, so the relation is only partially transparent despite the cross-linguistic convention of scientific names.

Etymology

Spergularia rubra may come from old Latin words: spergula, meaning a small plant that 'scatters' its seeds, and rubra, meaning 'red' for its pinkish flowers. So the name fits this low plant that often spreads across the ground with tiny pink blooms.