deciduous plant
- noun
- /dɪˈsɪdʒuəs plænt/
:
planta caducifolia
- Once deciduous plants have dropped their leaves, holes in the landscape that could benefit from evergreen "bones" become apparent.
- evergreen and deciduous plants
Examples
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Deciduous plants, such as oaks and maples, shed their leaves in autumn and grow new ones in spring.
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Many deciduous plants, like birches and willows, create beautiful fall foliage before dropping their leaves.
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In a temperate climate, gardeners often prefer deciduous plants because they provide shade in summer and allow sunlight in during winter.
Antonyms
How Evergreen
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is fully compositional: 'deciduous' (losing leaves seasonally) straightforwardly modifies 'plant', so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a plant that sheds its leaves annually. This adjective+noun pattern is semantically regular and has clear cross-linguistic parallels, making the phrase transparent.
Etymology
The term deciduous plant comes from an old Latin word meaning 'to fall off', because these plants drop their leaves when the cold season comes. So, deciduous plant now means 'a plant that loses its leaves every year'.
