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Glite Dictionary
fern ally

fern ally

8.6
Plants like clubmosses and horsetails that look like ferns but are not true ferns
  • noun
  • /fɜrn ˈælaɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : planta afín a los helechos
  • During the hike, we spotted several fern allies, including horsetails and clubmosses, along the trail.

Examples

  • The garden center offers a variety of fern allies that can thrive in low-light conditions.

  • Indoor host-specificity tests in Florida encompassed 63 species of native and cultivated ferns and closely related plants called fern allies, along with citrus and five kinds of familiar vegetables.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Clubmosses are considered part of the fern ally group, although they are different from true ferns.

Surface Forms

fern ally singular
fern allies plural

Morphology

fern + ally

The phrase can be parsed as 'an ally of ferns' and so conveys the idea of a plant related to ferns; a learner who understands 'fern' and the relational sense of 'ally' can infer the basic meaning. However, the specialised taxonomic nuance (that these are not true ferns) and the less frequent biological sense of 'ally' are not fully obvious to an average B1 learner, so the mapping is only partially predictable.

Etymology

Fern ally was made by plant scientists from the words fern and ally to show a plant that is like an 'ally' or close partner of 'true ferns'. So today it means plants such as clubmosses and horsetails that look like ferns but are not true ferns.