Killarney fern
- noun
- UK
- The Killarney fern is considered one of Ireland's rarest and most treasured plants.
Examples
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Conservation efforts have helped preserve the natural habitat of the Killarney fern in western Europe.
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The Killarney fern thrives in moist, shaded environments.
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Botanists traveled to remote woodlands to study the growth patterns of the Killarney fern.
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Look at that beautiful Killarney fern over there!
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Conservation efforts have helped preserve the natural habitat of the Killarney fern in western Europe.
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The Killarney fern is considered one of Ireland's rarest and most treasured plants.
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The Killarney fern thrives in moist, shaded environments.
Synonyms
A large strong fern with thin see-through leaves that grows on damp rocks in western Europe
Surface Forms
Morphology
Killarney + fern
The phrase is transparently compositional: a place-name + noun combination indicating a type or variety of fern associated with Killarney. This place-derived naming pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a learner who knows the constituents (that Killarney is a place and what a fern is) can infer the MWE’s meaning.
Etymology
The name Killarney fern comes from Killarney, a place in western Ireland, where this large fern grows in wet, shaded woods. So, the name simply points to the plant that is found there.