🌿 A tall plant 🌱 A bushy subshrub

goat's rue

9.9

A tall European plant with many leaflets and spikes of blue flowers used sometimes as a medicine

noun
/ɡoʊts ru/

: ruda de cabra

Clusters of blue flowers covered the goat's rue growing at the edge of the meadow.

Examples

The herbalist recommended goat's rue as a traditional remedy for boosting milk production.
The goat's rue plant thrives in moist, well-drained soil.
Although not commonly cultivated, goat's rue is occasionally found in botanical gardens.
Many herbalists recommend goat's rue for its medicinal properties.
In the summer, the garden was adorned with goat's rue, its blue flowers attracting many bees.
The herbalist spoke about the benefits of goat's rue for those looking to increase milk production.
During our hike, we discovered a patch of wild goat's rue blooming near the stream.

Synonyms

goat rue

vsgoat's rue

Specialized

9.9

A tall bushy plant from Europe with blue flowers used in traditional medicine

uses the possessive apostrophe in its common name rather than the simpler form

Galega officinalis

vsgoat's rue

Specialized

9.9

A tall bushy plant with spikes of blue flowers sometimes used in medicine

is the everyday common name used outside scientific contexts

Surface Forms

goat's rue singular

goat's rues plural

Morphology

goat's + rue

The phrase is a simple possessive noun phrase: 'rue' is a plant and 'goat's' marks a type or association, so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a kind of rue or plant related to goats. This follows ordinary English naming patterns for plants (e.g. 'goat's beard') and is therefore directly compositional and predictable.

Etymology

Goat's rue got its name from old farm life. Farmers noticed the herb helped goats make more milk, or that goats liked to eat it, so the name goat's rue stuck and today it refers to that milk‑helping plant.