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Glite Dictionary
avalanche lily

avalanche lily

9.9
A plant that lives for many years with white flowers often with orange spots near melting snow
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : lirio de avalancha
  • The delicate blooms of the avalanche lily are a common sight in the Cascade Mountains.

Examples

  • In early spring, patches of avalanche lily cover the meadows as the snow melts.

  • Hikers stopped to admire a cluster of avalanche lilies near the trail.

  • The avalanche lily blooms beautifully in spring.

  • I spotted avalanche lilies near the mountain trail.

  • In the spring, the avalanche lily brightens the landscape with its white petals and orange spots.

  • Hiking along the trail, we spotted several avalanche lilies flourishing near the melting snow.

  • The avalanche lily can usually be seen blooming in rocky meadows at high elevations.

Synonyms

Erythronium montanum
vsavalanche lily
  • Specialized
9.9

A small wild plant with white flowers and orange spots that grows near melting snow in mountains

is the common everyday name used outside scientific contexts

Surface Forms

avalanche lily singular
avalanche lilies plural

Morphology

avalanche + lily

The compound 'avalanche lily' is a transparent noun–noun composition: a B1 learner who knows 'avalanche' (a mass of snow) and 'lily' (a flower) can infer it refers to a type of lily associated with avalanches or the snowline habitat. This modifier+head pattern is common cross-linguistically in plant names, so the overall meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.

Etymology

Avalanche lily may come from the way the white lily flowers appear where an avalanche has cleared the snow. When the snow melts after a slide, these bulbs can bloom early in the open ground, so the name refers to a flower that grows near recently melted snow.