creeping St John's wort
- noun
:
hipérico rastrero
- In the summer, the creeping St John's wort produces a carpet of bright yellow blooms.
Examples
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Many people use creeping St John's wort as a ground cover.
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The creeping St John's wort quickly spread to cover the bare patch in our garden.
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Gardeners often choose creeping St John's wort for its low maintenance and attractive flowers.
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The garden is filled with creeping St John's wort.
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Gardeners often choose creeping St John's wort for its low maintenance and attractive flowers.
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In the summer, the creeping St John's wort produces a carpet of bright yellow blooms.
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Many people use creeping St John's wort as a ground cover in their landscaping.
Synonyms
A creeping evergreen bush with bright yellow star-shaped flowers used to cover the ground
How Spreading
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'creeping' (spreading plant habit) and 'wort' (a plant name element) would allow a learner to infer this is a creeping plant, so part of the meaning is compositional. However, 'St John's wort' is a conventionalized plant name whose specific referent (an evergreen shrub with yellow star-shaped flowers) is lexicalized and not predictable from 'St' + 'John's', so full meaning requires prior exposure.
Etymology
The name creeping St John's wort may come from the plant's way of growing and when it flowers. The word creeping shows it spreads along the ground, and St John's wort refers to a plant that often blooms around 'St John's Day', so the name tells you it's a low, spreading plant with bright yellow flowers.