gand flower

9.9

A small European plant with many branches and blue or pink flowers

noun

Archaic

: flor de gand

The gand flower was once commonly used in herbal remedies to support breastfeeding mothers.

Examples

Many gardens in Europe feature the gand flower for its attractive blue and pink racemes.
The gand flower blooms in early spring.
Despite its beautiful appearance, the medicinal value of the gand flower is now considered largely folkloric.
I saw a beautiful gand flower in the garden.
Many gardens in Europe feature the gand flower for its attractive blue and pink racemes.
The gand flower was once commonly used in herbal remedies to support breastfeeding mothers.
Despite its beautiful appearance, the medicinal value of the gand flower is now considered largely folkloric.

Synonyms

common milkwort

vsgand flower

9.8

A small European plant that lives for several years and often grows in meadows, with blue, pink, or white flowers

is an older traditional name once thought to promote lactation

Polygala vulgaris

vsgand flower

Specialized

9.9

A small plant that lives for several years with branches and clusters of blue, pink, or white flowers

is the common traditional name used in older sources

Surface Forms

gand flower singular

gand flowers plural

Morphology

gand + flower

The modifier 'gand' is not a recognizable English lexical item (dictionary shows it as not found), so knowing 'flower' alone does not allow a learner to infer the specific plant identity or its lactation-related property. This is a lexicalized species name-like compound whose specific meaning is arbitrary and not compositionally predictable from its parts, making it opaque to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Gand flower may come from old herbal practice: people used its bunches of small blooms to make a drink for new mothers, believing the plant would help milk flow. One popular story says the image of gand and its many flowers helping a nursing mother is why it became linked with 'promoting lactation'.