silky dogwood
- noun
- US
:
cornisillo
- We planted a silky dogwood along the stream to help control erosion.
Examples
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The silky dogwood attracts many bird species with its clusters of blue berries.
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In the autumn, the purplish stems of the silky dogwood become especially striking.
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The silky dogwood thrives near rivers.
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I planted a silky dogwood in my garden.
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The silky dogwood attracts many bird species with its clusters of blue berries.
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In the autumn, the purplish stems of the silky dogwood become especially striking.
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We planted a silky dogwood along the stream to help control erosion.
Synonyms
11
5.9
A small tree or shrub that has showy flowers in spring and colorful stems
1
4.5
A small tree with bright white or pink flowers in clusters
A shrub with purplish stems and blue berries from eastern North America
A bush with purple stems and blue fruit that grows in eastern North America
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'silky' describes a quality of the 'dogwood', so the phrase denotes a dogwood shrub with silky (smooth/soft or shiny) characteristics such as its stems. Descriptive plant names like this are compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Silky dogwood gets its name from two easy images: the stems and leaves feel soft and a little shiny—silky—and it is a kind of dogwood, a 'shrub' with berries. So the name points to the shrub with purplish, silky stems and blue fruit you often see near water.