Indian chocolate
- noun
:
chocolate indio
- We learned to identify Indian chocolate by its pinnate leaves and nodding blossoms.
Examples
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The garden featured a cluster of Indian chocolate blooming under the shade trees.
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Botanists admire the unique color contrast in Indian chocolate flowers each spring.
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Look at that Indian chocolate!
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This Indian chocolate is beautiful.
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Each spring, the vibrant blossoms of Indian chocolate delight gardeners with their stunning colors.
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Our botany class studied the distinct features of Indian chocolate, noting its unique leaf shape.
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While hiking, we spotted several Indian chocolate plants along the trail, admired for their beautiful flowers.
Synonyms
A long-lived wildflower that grows in wet meadows with nodding brown-purple flower cups and orange-pink petals
A plant that lives for several years with divided leaves and hanging brown-purple and orange-pink flowers
A small wild plant with nodding orange-pink flowers that grows in wet places
Surface Forms
Morphology
Indian + chocolate
The phrase is a lexicalized plant name whose referent (a perennial plant) is not inferable from 'Indian' (pertaining to India) + 'chocolate' (the food or color); a B1 learner would more likely interpret it as chocolate from India or something brown rather than a specific botanical species. This is a language-specific compound name with no transparent compositional relation to the botanical sense, so its meaning is not predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Indian chocolate may be named for how its flowers look. The dark brown outer cup of the bloom looks like a piece of 'chocolate' with bright orange and pink petals inside, so the name helps you remember the plant.
