Gentiana procera
- noun
- Specialized
:
gentiana procera
- The delicate blue flowers of the Gentiana procera bloom in late summer in prairies and meadows.
Examples
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Gardeners appreciate Gentiana procera for its striking, fringed petals and attractive color.
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Botanists discovered a rare patch of Gentiana procera growing near the riverbank.
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Wow! That Gentiana procera is breathtaking!
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Look at that stunning Gentiana procera by the stream!
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The delicate blue flowers of the Gentiana procera bloom in late summer in prairies and meadows.
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Gardeners appreciate Gentiana procera for its striking, fringed petals and attractive color.
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Botanists discovered a rare patch of Gentiana procera growing near the riverbank.
Synonyms
A small blue wildflower with fringed petals that grows in eastern North America
Surface Forms
Morphology
Gentiana + procera
The form is a botanical binomial (genus + specific epithet), so a learner who knows 'Gentiana' would recognise this as a species of gentian and thus identify it as a plant/flower — a partially transparent cue. However, 'procera' is not an English lexical item (and its meaning requires Latin/taxonomic knowledge), so the precise species sense ('a small fringed gentian...') is not derivable from the constituents by a typical B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Gentiana procera comes from two name parts: Gentiana is named after King Gentius, an old ruler who was said to use gentian as a simple 'medicine', and procera is a Latin word meaning 'tall' or 'slender'. So the name is a little story—a gentian linked to that king and described as 'tall', and today it is the name we use for the small blue fringed gentian found in east central North America.
