shepherd's pouch
- noun
- /ˈʃɛpərdz paʊtʃ/
:
bolsa de pastor
- The heart-shaped pods of the shepherd's pouch make it easy to identify in the wild.
Examples
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The shepherd's pouch thrives in disturbed soils across much of the world.
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Gardeners often remove shepherd's pouch because it can quickly spread and crowd out other plants.
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The shepherd's pouch is often found in gardens.
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Many people consider shepherd's pouch a common weed.
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Gardeners often remove shepherd's pouch because it can quickly spread and crowd out other plants.
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The heart-shaped seed pods of the shepherd's pouch are easily recognized in gardens and fields.
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The shepherd's pouch is a common sight in disturbed soils, often appearing where plants have been cleared.
Synonyms
A small white-flowered plant that grows as a common weed with heart-shaped seed pods
A small plant that has white flowers and heart-shaped seed pods and often grows as a weed
Surface Forms
Morphology
shepherd's + pouch
The phrase literally combines 'shepherd's' and 'pouch', which would lead a learner to expect a small bag owned by a shepherd, not a plant; the noun is actually a lexicalized common name for a plant (Capsella bursa-pastoris). There is an associative motivation—its seed pods resemble little pouches/purses and many languages use similar folk names—so the connection is partially clear but the botanical sense is not fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure.
Etymology
Shepherd's pouch gets its name from the shape of the plant's seed pods. People thought the small, flat, heart- or triangle-shaped pods looked like the little leather 'pouches' a shepherd might carry, so the name now means the plant with those tiny pods.
