few-flowered leek

9.9

A small onion-like plant that makes tiny bulbs instead of flowers

noun

Specialized

: ajo de flor escasa

Unlike common leeks, the few-flowered leek rarely produces true flowers.

Examples

The few-flowered leek is invasive in some woodlands, quickly forming dense carpets.
Gardeners sometimes grow few-flowered leek for its edible leaves and bulbils.
The few-flowered leek is a unique plant.
Many few-flowered leeks thrive in the wild.
Gardeners sometimes grow few-flowered leek for its edible leaves and bulbils.
The few-flowered leek is invasive in some woodlands, quickly forming dense carpets.
Unlike common leeks, the few-flowered leek rarely produces true flowers.

Synonyms

Allium paradoxum

vsfew-flowered leek

Specialized

9.9

A small wild garlic plant that makes small bulbs instead of flowers

is the common name used instead of the scientific label

Surface Forms

few-flowered leek singular

few-flowered leeks plural

Morphology

few-flowered + leek

The phrase is compositionally transparent: 'few' (a small number) combined with 'flowered' (having flowers) yields the straightforward meaning 'having few flowers', which a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer. The specific botanical detail about bulbils is specialized knowledge but does not prevent the basic sense from being directly derived, and the adjective+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common.

Etymology

The name few-flowered leek comes from how the plant looks: it makes very few real flowers and instead forms many tiny bulb-like shoots. So 'few-flowered' literally means 'few flowers' and 'leek' tells you it is a leek-like, edible plant.