Great Plains paintbrush
- noun
- US
:
pincel de las Grandes Llanuras
- The Great Plains paintbrush brightens prairies with its distinctive pinkish blooms every spring.
Examples
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In my garden, I planted a Great Plains paintbrush.
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Researchers studied how the Great Plains paintbrush adapts to varying soil conditions across its range.
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Hikers admired clusters of Great Plains paintbrush along the rocky trail in northern Mexico.
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The Great Plains paintbrush blooms beautifully in spring.
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Hikers admired clusters of Great Plains paintbrush along the rocky trail in northern Mexico.
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The Great Plains paintbrush brightens prairies with its distinctive pinkish blooms every spring.
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Researchers studied how the Great Plains paintbrush adapts to varying soil conditions across its range.
Synonyms
A hairy wild plant with pink flowers that grows on prairies
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is transparently built from a location phrase ('Great Plains') plus 'paintbrush', so a learner who knows the words would reasonably infer it denotes something from the Great Plains associated with or resembling a paintbrush. However, the specific botanical sense (a hairy, pink-flowered plant) is a lexicalized metaphorical use of 'paintbrush' that is not fully predictable from the constituents without prior exposure or domain knowledge, so full comprehension is not guaranteed at B1.
Etymology
Great Plains paintbrush gets its name from how it looks: the pinkish, hair-like flowers at the top of the stem resemble a painter's paintbrush, and the plant is common on the Great Plains. So the name points to both its brush-like blooms and where it grows.
