Hottentot bread vine
- noun
- NSFW
:
planta de pan hottentote
- Collectors often seek out the Hottentot bread vine because of its distinctive, elephant-foot-shaped tuber.
Examples
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The Hottentot bread vine can survive long droughts by storing water in its enormous rootstock.
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Botanists admire the unusual appearance of the Hottentot bread vine in its native habitat.
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The Hottentot bread vine is native to South Africa.
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Have you seen the Hottentot bread vine in the garden?
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The Hottentot bread vine has a unique appearance with its large, fissured rootstock.
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In South Africa, the Hottentot bread vine is prized for its impressive elephant-foot-shaped tuber.
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Gardeners appreciate the Hottentot bread vine for its ability to endure prolonged dry periods.
Synonyms
A South African climbing plant with a large woody base that looks like a turtle shell
A South African vine with a very large underground tuber
A climbing plant from South Africa with a large woody root and rough cracked bark
A plant that grows in different regions, often with blue or purple flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The headword contains the clear noun 'vine', so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would infer it refers to a climbing plant, and 'Hottentot' signals a regional/ethnic association (South Africa). However, the specific sense (the species Dioscorea elephantipes and its large fissured rootstock associated with 'bread') is conventional/botanical and the role of 'bread' is not transparently derivable, so the full meaning cannot be predicted from the parts.
Etymology
Hottentot bread vine may come from a clear image: the plant has a very large, cracked root that looks like a hard loaf of bread or like an elephant's foot, and early local people sometimes used the root as 'food'. That's why the name joins Hottentot, an old name for the local people, with bread and vine to name this climbing plant with a big, bread-like root.
