herbaceous plant
1
4.5
- noun
- /hɜːrˈbeɪʃəs plænt/
- Specialized
:
planta herbácea
- However, if this showy critter is indeed a neotropical relative of the muslin moth, it's much more benign: such moths feed on herbaceous plants and cause little trouble.
- herbaceous plants and woody plants
- herbaceous plants and shrubs
Examples
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One key trait for evaluating herbaceous plants, for instance, seems to be the latitudinal range of origin.
Academic text (1996) -
Seedlings of herbaceous plants peaked during 1991, three years after the fires, and then returned to low levels (Turner et al. 1997).
Academic text (1997) -
Bottom grass refers to valley bottoms, which are covered by herbaceous plants.
Academic text (2002) -
Trees survived in these areas, but herbaceous plants were buried under deep layers of tephra.
Academic text (1997) -
Even there, woodland trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants were invading.
Academic text (1991) -
The genus Momordica includes 45 species of climbing herbaceous plants native to South Asia.
Academic text (2015) -
Greater burn intensity and frequency cause the vegetation to become dominated by low-growing herbaceous plants, with few or no trees (Page et al. 2009).
Academic text (2011) -
Observe a typical herbaceous plant: the lower leaves are rounder, fuller, and closer to the elemental natures of water and earth.
Blog text (30) -
This curious enthrallment led, in turn, to the establishment of "The Herb Quarterly," a forum published in Newfane, Vermont, for information on all kinds of useful herbaceous plants.
Academic text (1991) -
In the garden, we have a variety of herbaceous plants that bloom beautifully every spring.
Synonyms
70
1.0
A plant with soft stems that often dies back to the ground after flowering
Antonyms
How Herbaceous
- Specialized
1
4.5
- Specialized
1
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'herbaceous' means 'soft/nonwoody' and combined with 'plant' yields 'a nonwoody plant', matching the given definition. This adjective+noun formation is a regular, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Herbaceous plant comes from herbaceous (like 'herb', meaning soft and not woody) and plant, so picture a soft green stem that bends and dies back to the ground in winter. That's why a herbaceous plant means a plant that does not grow a hard woody stem and often dies back at the end of the growing season.