oak-leaved goosefoot
- noun
:
pata de oca de hoja de roble
- Gardeners often struggle to remove oak-leaved goosefoot from vegetable patches.
Examples
-
Many people mistake oak-leaved goosefoot for similar weedy species at first glance.
-
The oak-leaved goosefoot thrives in disturbed soils.
-
The fields were overrun with oak-leaved goosefoot by late summer.
-
Many gardeners consider oak-leaved goosefoot a troublesome weed.
-
Gardeners often struggle to remove oak-leaved goosefoot from their vegetable patches.
-
The fields were overrun with oak-leaved goosefoot, making it hard for other plants to grow.
-
Many gardeners view oak-leaved goosefoot as a troublesome weed that chokes their crops.
Synonyms
A small annual weed with green flower spikes and white hairy undersides of its leaves
An annual plant often found as a weed with greenish flower spikes and white, hairy undersides to its leaves
Surface Forms
Morphology
oak-leaved + goosefoot
The phrase combines a descriptive adjective 'oak-leaved' (having leaves like an oak) with the plant name 'goosefoot', so its meaning — a goosefoot plant with oak-shaped leaves — is directly compositional. A B1 learner who knows the constituents ('oak', 'leaf/-leaved', and the plant type 'goosefoot') can reasonably infer the referent without prior exposure.
Etymology
Oak-leaved goosefoot comes from the shape of its leaves: they look a bit like an oak leaf and like a goosefoot, the old name for plants with a foot-shaped leaf. So the name helps you remember this little wild 'plant' or 'weed'.
