marsh rosemary
- noun
- UK
:
romero de pantano
- The marsh rosemary thrives in coastal wetlands with high salt content.
Examples
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Wild marsh rosemary adds a splash of color to the salt marsh in summer.
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The marsh rosemary blooms beautifully in the spring.
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Botanists studied a rare species of marsh rosemary during their field trip.
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I found some marsh rosemary near the bay.
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The marsh rosemary thrives in coastal wetlands with high salt content.
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Wild marsh rosemary adds a splash of color to the salt marsh in summer.
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Botanists studied a rare species of marsh rosemary during their field trip.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A small plant that grows in salt marshes with spikes of white or pale purple flowers
A plant that grows in salt marshes with small purple or white flowers
A plant that grows by the sea with small purple flowers called sea lavender
Surface Forms
Morphology
marsh + rosemary
The compound follows a straightforward noun–noun modifier pattern: 'marsh' specifies the environment and 'rosemary' names a plant, so a learner who knows both words can infer it is a kind of plant associated with marshes. This compositional, non-idiomatic structure is cross-linguistically common and does not require special cultural or historical knowledge, making the meaning derivable from the parts.
Etymology
The compound noun marsh rosemary comes from people calling a plant a rosemary that grows in the marsh, because it looked a little like garden rosemary but lived in salt marshes. That's why today marsh rosemary refers to the coastal plant with spikes of white or mauve flowers.