golden fern
- noun
- /ˈɡoʊldən fɜrn/
- US
:
helecho dorado
- The golden fern adds a striking touch to tropical gardens with its unique coloration.
Examples
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Some gardeners prize the golden fern for its decorative foliage.
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The golden fern thrives in humid conditions.
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Botanists discovered a rare variety of golden fern in the rainforest.
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I saw a beautiful golden fern at the botanical garden.
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Some gardeners prize the golden fern for its decorative foliage.
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Botanists discovered a rare variety of golden fern in the rainforest.
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The golden fern adds a striking touch to tropical gardens with its unique coloration.
Synonyms
A fern from the West Indies and South America with bright yellow undersides on its fronds
A fern with fronds that have bright golden-yellow undersides from tropical America
A large tropical fern that grows in wet swamps with big leaves and yellow patches under them
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a fern with golden colouring or sporangia' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'golden' (gold-coloured) with 'fern' (a plant). This adjective+noun composition is a standard, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun golden fern comes from a simple image: people saw bright gold patches of spores on the underside of the fern leaves and called the plant golden. So the name means 'a fern with golden coloring or golden spore spots'.
