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cone-bearing

cone-bearing

5.4
A tree or small bush that has cones and leaves that stay green all year
  • adjective
translation icon : conífero
  • Scattered along the stream and particularly through the swamp forest are Atlantic white cedars, cone-bearing evergreens more common farther north on the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
  • cone-bearing tree
  • cone-bearing conifers
  • cone-bearing evergreens

Examples

  • Because the habitat includes a mixture of cone-bearing trees and cold-tolerant hardwoods, Ladd characterizes it as "transition forest."

    Academic text (2009)
  • These forests consist mainly of cone-bearing trees such as spruce, hemlock, and fir, which are well suited to the cold climate.

  • Beneath these cone-bearing trees, which are more abundant as one climbs higher up the slopes of Mount Baldy, are rich layers of shrubs and wildflowers.

Synonyms

coniferous
vscone-bearing
1 5.3

A tree or shrub that has cones and often keeps green needle leaves all year

has identical meaning but appears as a hyphenated adjective

Surface Forms

cone-bearing positive

Morphology

cone-bearing = cone + bearing (transparent) = cone + bearing

Meaning is directly derived from the noun 'cone' plus the participial 'bearing' pattern (as in 'fruit-bearing'), so learners can infer 'producing or having cones'.

Etymology

Cone-bearing is easy to picture: cone comes from an old word meaning 'cone', as in an ice-cream cone or a traffic cone, and bearing means 'carrying' or 'producing'. So a cone-bearing tree is one that 'carries' or makes cones, like pine and spruce, and often stays green.