lion's beard
- noun
- US
:
barba de león
- She planted several lion's beard plants to add color to her spring garden.
Examples
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The garden was filled with the delicate blossoms of lion's beard in early spring.
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Botanists found a rare specimen of lion's beard growing along the forest edge.
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I saw a beautiful lion's beard blooming in the garden.
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The lion's beard adds color to my spring flower bed.
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The garden was filled with the delicate blossoms of lion's beard in early spring.
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She planted several lion's beard plants to add color to her spring garden.
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Botanists found a rare specimen of lion's beard growing along the forest edge.
Synonyms
A short, hairy plant that comes back every year and has blue-violet or lilac flowers in early spring
A short hairy plant from North America and Siberia with blue-violet spring flowers
A short hairy plant that comes back each year with blue-violet spring flowers
A short, hairy plant from North America that lives more than one year and has blue-violet spring flowers
A short hairy plant with blue-violet or lilac flowers in early spring
A small wild plant with purple flowers in early spring
A small plant with blue-violet or lilac flowers that blooms in early spring
A short hairy plant with blue-violet or lilac flowers that blooms in early spring
Surface Forms
Morphology
lion's + beard
The phrase combines 'lion' + 'beard', so a learner who knows those words can infer a resemblance to a lion's beard — i.e., a tuft or hairy growth. Because 'beard' is also used for tufts on plants/animals, a B1 learner could guess this refers to a hairy plant structure but would not recover the specific botanical details (perennial, flower color, distribution). The metaphorical naming is partly transparent but requires world knowledge, so it is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Lion's beard is the name given because of how the plant looks: its early spring flowers have a soft, hairy tuft that reminds people of a lion's mane or beard. So the name lion's beard means 'a plant that looks like a lion's beard'.
