🌾 A coarse weed 🪻 A sticky plant 🌱 A low plant

goose grass

7.7

A low-growing plant that grows back each year with silvery undersides on its leaves

noun
/ɡus ɡræs/

: potentilla

The silvery leaves of goose grass help distinguish it from similar weeds.

Examples

Gardeners often struggle to control goose grass in their lawns and flower beds.
The field was covered with goose grass after a cool, wet spring.
Look at that patch of goose grass over there!
The goose grass is thriving this year.
Gardeners often struggle to control goose grass in their lawns and flower beds.
The field was covered with goose grass after a cool, wet spring.
The silvery leaves of goose grass help distinguish it from similar weeds.

Synonyms

goose-tansy

vsgoose grass

9.9

A low plant that lives many years and people often use as ground cover

is identical in meaning but written without a hyphen

Potentilla anserina

vsgoose grass

Specialized

9.9

A low growing plant with silvery leaves that spreads along wet ground

is the everyday common name rather than the scientific label

silverweed

vsgoose grass

9.8

A low plant with silvery leaves that often grows in poor or wet soil

is a specific northern low plant with silvery undersides rather than general

Surface Forms

goose grass singular

goose grasses plural

Morphology

goose + grass

The compound 'goose grass' is a straightforward noun+noun composition: 'grass' identifies the plant category and 'goose' functions as a modifier, so a learner who knows both words will reasonably infer it denotes a type of grass or plant associated with geese or resembling something goose-related. Specific botanical details (e.g. silvery leaf undersides) are not predictable from the parts, but the basic referent as a kind of plant is transparently derivable.

Etymology

Goose grass may be named for its pale, soft leaves that look like a goose's underside. So the name is used for a low plant with 'silvery leaves'.