spiked loosestrife
- noun
- UK
:
luz de loosestrife
- The wetlands were covered with spiked loosestrife, adding splashes of purple to the landscape.
Examples
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Gardeners sometimes plant spiked loosestrife for its tall, showy flower clusters.
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Spiked loosestrife has become invasive in parts of North America, threatening native marsh plants.
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The spiked loosestrife blooms beautifully in late summer.
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We saw a field of spiked loosestrife near the lake.
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Spiked loosestrife has become invasive in parts of North America, threatening native marsh plants.
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The wetlands were covered with spiked loosestrife, adding splashes of purple to the landscape.
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Gardeners sometimes plant spiked loosestrife for its tall, showy flower clusters.
Synonyms
1
8.9
A tall marsh plant with long purple flower spikes that crowd out native plants
A tall marsh plant with purple flower spikes that often spreads and takes over wet areas
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun combination: 'spiked' describes a characteristic (having spikes) and 'loosestrife' names the plant, so the composite meaning (a loosestrife with spikes or a tall spike of flowers) is directly derivable from the parts. This compositional descriptive pattern is common and cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would understand the MWE.
Etymology
Spiked loosestrife gets its name from how it looks: the word spiked means long, upright 'spikes' of flowers and loosestrife is the old name for this marsh plant. That's why the name tells you it is a marsh plant with tall spikes of purple flowers.