maidenhair spleenwort
- noun
:
helecho de virgen
- Hikers in Hawaii often spot maidenhair spleenwort growing among the rocks along the trails.
Examples
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The shady stone walls in the garden were covered with maidenhair spleenwort.
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Look at that stunning maidenhair spleenwort over there!
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Botanists collected samples of maidenhair spleenwort to study its unique fronds.
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The maidenhair spleenwort thrives in rocky crevices.
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In Hawaii, one can find the delicate maidenhair spleenwort thriving on rocky ledges.
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The maidenhair spleenwort is a small fern that often grows in the shade of taller plants.
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During our hike, we spotted the lovely maidenhair spleenwort peeking out from between the stones.
Synonyms
A small fern with thin, divided leaves that grows on rocks in shady places
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents refer to ferns—'maidenhair' (a lacy, hair-like frond fern) and 'spleenwort' (a genus/type of fern)—so the compound denotes a specific kind of fern and its meaning is directly derivable from the parts. The noun-noun compounding pattern is compositional and cross-linguistically common, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
Maidenhair spleenwort may come from two old ideas: people thought it looked like the soft leaves of the maidenhair fern, and plants called spleenwort were once used to treat the 'spleen'. So the name came to mean this small fern that often grows on rocks.
