kei apple bush
- noun
- South African
- The kei apple bush thrives in warm, sunny climates and produces fruit in abundance.
Examples
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The thick, spiny branches of the kei apple bush can also be used to form natural hedges.
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Farmers along the river have long cultivated the kei apple bush for its tart, edible berries.
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The kei apple bush produces delicious fruits.
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Many gardeners love the kei apple bushes in their yards.
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Farmers along the river have long cultivated the kei apple bush for its tart, edible berries.
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The kei apple bush thrives in warm, sunny climates and produces fruit in abundance.
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Many gardeners appreciate the unique fruits of the kei apple bush in their yards.
Synonyms
A spiny shrub with round yellow fruits you can eat
A spiny shrub from South Africa that produces round yellow edible fruits
Surface Forms
Morphology
The combination 'apple' + 'bush' transparently suggests a bush that bears apple-like fruit, so a learner who knows those words can guess it is a plant producing edible round fruits. However, 'kei' is a local/proper-name modifier with no obvious meaning to most learners (and no dictionary gloss provided), so the full, specific reference (a particular South African species) is not predictable; overall the phrase is only partially compositional.
Etymology
Kei apple bush may be named after the area near the Kei River and because its fruit looks like a small apple. The image of a spiny bush by the river with round, yellow fruit helps explain why the name now means 'a bush with edible fruit like a small apple'.