blue stem
- noun
- /bluː stɛm/
- US
:
tallo azul
- During summer, the blue stem grass turns a beautiful shade of blue, making the landscape picturesque.
Examples
-
You can't take a big blue stem grass from Minnesota and move it a thousand miles away to a grassland at the edge of Illinois, because the Minnesota grass knows about living in Minnesota, and the Illinois grass knows about living in Illinois.
Academic text (2001) -
The farmer decided to plant blue stem grass in his fields because it grows well for hay.
-
That night we made up in my tipi, beneath the buffalo robes, on a bed of living blue stem.
Fiction book (1995) -
"When you light a match to that big blue stem, it's almost like you've dumped all kinds of fertilizer on it because it rejuvenates it so much, you know."
Blog text (17) -
Many ranchers prefer blue stem for grazing cattle due to its nutritious leaves and tall growth.
Synonyms
1
8.1
A tall grass from North America grown for hay and animal feed
A tall grass that lives many years, grows in United States prairies, and is used for hay
A tall North American grass that farmers grow for hay
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'blue' (a color) + 'stem' (a plant stalk); a B1 learner who knows both words would reasonably infer this refers to a plant with bluish stems or leaf sheaths. This adjective+noun composition follows a common, cross-linguistically familiar pattern (color + plant part), so the expression is transparently compositional.
Etymology
Blue stem gets its name from the plant's look: the grass has smooth stems and leaf parts that appear a pale blue, so people joined blue and stem to describe it. That's why blue stem today means a 'tall grass' often grown for 'hay'.