silver tree fern
- noun
- Australian
:
helecho plateado
- Gardeners prize the silver tree fern for its striking foliage and graceful arching fronds.
Examples
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During our hike, we saw a tall silver tree fern with gleaming white undersides to its leaves.
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The silver tree fern is a national symbol of New Zealand and appears on many emblems.
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The silver tree fern thrives in humid environments.
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Have you seen a silver tree fern before?
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During our hike, we saw a tall silver tree fern with gleaming white undersides to its leaves.
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Gardeners prize the silver tree fern for its striking foliage and graceful arching fronds.
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The silver tree fern is a national symbol of New Zealand and appears on many emblems.
Synonyms
A large tree-like fern from New Zealand and Australia with white undersides on its divided leaves
A tall fern tree with a dark trunk and large feathery leaves with pale undersides
A fern with pale white undersides on its leaves
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'tree fern' denotes a fern with a tree-like habit and 'silver' describes its silvery colour/undersides, so the overall meaning (a tree-like fern that is silvery) is directly derivable from the parts. This modifier+noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic noun phrase pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the intended referent.
Etymology
Silver tree fern gets its name from how it looks: it is a fern that grows like a tree and the undersides of its fronds are bright silver, so the name describes the plant's tall shape and shiny leaves.
