St. Dabeoc's heath

9.9

A low bush that keeps its leaves all year and has white to pink-purple flowers

noun

: brezo de San Dabeoc

The hillside was covered with St. Dabeoc's heath, its rose-purple flowers standing out against the green landscape.

Examples

Several varieties of St. Dabeoc's heath thrive in the acidic soils of western Europe.
Gardeners often plant St. Dabeoc's heath for its evergreen foliage and colorful blooms.
The St. Dabeoc's heath is beautiful.
Look at the St. Dabeoc's heath!
Gardeners often plant St. Dabeoc's heath for its evergreen foliage and colorful blooms.
Several varieties of St. Dabeoc's heath thrive in the acidic soils of western Europe.
The hillside was covered with St. Dabeoc's heath, its rose-purple flowers standing out against the green landscape.

Synonyms

Daboecia cantabrica

vsSt. Dabeoc's heath

Specialized

9.9

A low spreading shrub that stays green all year and has white to pink or purple flowers

is the common or local name rather than the scientific form

Connemara heath

vsSt. Dabeoc's heath

9.9

A low evergreen shrub with small white to pink flowers

refers broadly to the species rather than a regional variant

Surface Forms

St. Dabeoc's heath singular

St. Dabeoc's heaths plural

Morphology

St. + Dabeoc's + heath

The noun 'heath' clearly signals a kind of shrub, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer this is a plant or type of heath. However, 'St. Dabeoc's' is a proper name/possessive that adds no compositional semantic content about the plant’s specific properties, so the full botanical sense is not fully predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

St. Dabeoc's heath gets its name from a 'saint' called St. Dabeoc, who in old stories lived near open land covered with low shrubs. People called the shrub on that land the heath, so the name meant the 'heath of St. Dabeoc' and today St. Dabeoc's heath is the name of this small evergreen shrub.