smoke bush
- noun
- During the summer, the smoke bush bursts into clusters of flowers that create a beautiful, ethereal effect.
Examples
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In the garden, the smoke bush adds a unique, airy quality with its delicate, smoke-like blooms.
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So a really pretty pink double rose with a smoke Bush in the back.
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The smoke bush is known for its striking fluffy flowers that resemble clouds of smoke.
Synonyms
A group of Australian bushes and small trees with tight clusters of small flowers, often called smoke bushes
An Australian shrub or small tree with dense spikes of small flowers
A small tree or shrub with feathery flowers that look like smoke
A bush from Europe and Asia with feathery yellow flowers like smoke
A small, bushy tree with large feathery flower clusters that look like puffs of smoke
A small tree or large shrub from the southern United States with feathery flowers that look like smoke
A bushy tree in the southern United States with feathery flowers that look like puffs of smoke
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'smoke' describes a smoke-like quality and 'bush' names the plant, so a learner can infer it is a bush with a smoky appearance or smoke-like flowers. Noun+noun compounds for plants are common cross-linguistically and follow predictable patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand this term.
Etymology
Smoke bush is named for the plant's light, feathery flower clusters that look like smoke rising from the bush, so gardeners use the name to mean 'a shrub with smoke-like flowers'.