Spiranthes porrifolia

9.9

A type of orchid from western North America with small white flowers in a spiral

noun

Specialized

: Spiranthes porrifolia

The rare Spiranthes porrifolia can be found blooming in wet meadows of California.

Examples

Unlike its close relatives, Spiranthes porrifolia prefers marshy habitats.
Botanists participated in a survey to document populations of Spiranthes porrifolia along the Pacific coast.
The Spiranthes porrifolia blooms beautifully in the spring.
Have you seen the Spiranthes porrifolia in the garden?
The rare Spiranthes porrifolia can be found blooming in wet meadows of California.
Botanists participated in a survey to document populations of Spiranthes porrifolia along the Pacific coast.
Unlike its close relatives, Spiranthes porrifolia prefers marshy habitats.

Surface Forms

Spiranthes porrifolia singular

Spiranthes porrifolias plural

Morphology

Spiranthes + porrifolia

This is a Latin scientific name (binomial) rather than a compositional English phrase; the second element 'porrifolia' is not an English lexical item and is marked as not found in the dictionary, so a B1 learner cannot reliably infer the species meaning from the parts. Although 'Spiranthes' indicates an orchid genus, that alone does not make the full species name's meaning transparent to learners, so the expression is idiom-like and non-compositional for typical learners.

Etymology

The plant name Spiranthes porrifolia comes from old Greek and Latin words. Spiranthes means 'spiral flower' because its small white blooms twist around the stem, and porrifolia means 'leek-like leaves' because the plant has long, narrow leaves like a leek. So the name describes the plant's spiral flowers and leek-like leaves.