purple heather
- noun
- /ˈpɜrpl ˈhɛðər/
- US
- The garden was filled with purple heather.
Examples
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The hills were covered in purple heather during the late spring.
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Gardeners in the region often cultivate purple heather for its ornamental value.
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Botanists are studying the resilience of purple heather in changing climates.
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I love the smell of purple heather in the spring.
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The bright purple heather covered the hills, creating a stunning landscape.
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In late summer, the fields were filled with purple heather, attracting many bees.
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Walking through the valley, we admired the vibrant purple heather blooming all around us.
Synonyms
A low spreading evergreen plant that grows on rocky mountain slopes in western United States
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: an adjective 'purple' modifying the noun 'heather' yields a heather plant that is purple in color. This adjective+noun pattern is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common way to specify color, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Purple heather comes from the plant's look: the low evergreen heather is covered in small purple flowers that often turn hills into a purple carpet. So the name refers to that 'evergreen herb' with purple blooms.