rein orchis
- noun
- /reɪn ˈɔrkɪs/
- Specialized
:
orquídea de rienda
- Botanists study the rein orchis for its unique kidney-shaped flower lip.
Examples
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The rare rein orchis blooms in the forests of the American West during spring.
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We spotted several rein orchids growing along the damp meadow trail.
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The rein orchis blooms in late spring.
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Many rein orchises can be found in moist meadows.
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The rare rein orchis blooms in the forests of the American West during spring.
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Botanists study the rein orchis for its unique kidney-shaped flower lip.
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Many rein orchises can be found in moist meadows.
Synonyms
A wildflower with a lower petal shaped like a kidney
Surface Forms
Morphology
rein + Orchis
The first element 'rein' is not a transparent English lexical item here (and would more likely be read as the strap 'rein'), while 'Orchis' only signals an orchid genus and does not convey the specific ‘kidney-shaped lip’ feature. The botanical/Latin origin and the specialized morphological meaning are not inferable by a B1 learner who knows the constituent words, so the expression is not compositionally predictable.
Etymology
Rein orchis may come from an old word for 'kidney' because the orchid's lower petal looks like a small 'kidney'; the part rein points to that shape and orchis is the name for the orchid plant, so the name simply describes the plant's kidney-shaped part.
