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Glite Dictionary
scented penstemon

scented penstemon

9.9
A North American plant with fragrant tube-shaped white to pink flowers in small upright groups
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : penstemon fragante
  • In spring, the scented penstemon attracts bees and hummingbirds to the garden.

Examples

  • The scented penstemon thrives in dry, rocky soils under full sunlight.

  • Gardeners often plant scented penstemon for its showy and fragrant flowers.

  • The scented penstemon blooms beautifully in the spring.

  • I bought a scented penstemon for my garden.

  • Gardeners often plant scented penstemon for its showy and fragrant flowers.

  • In spring, the scented penstemon attracts bees and hummingbirds to the garden.

  • The scented penstemon thrives in dry, rocky soils under full sunlight.

Synonyms

Penstemon palmeri
vsscented penstemon
  • Specialized
9.9

A plant with fragrant, tube-shaped white to pink flowers in clusters on upright stems that grows in the American Southwest

is a regional common term rather than the scientific species name
balloon flower
vsscented penstemon
  • US
9.5

A plant that lives for many years with white to pink puffed flowers in long clusters on upright stems

has narrow tubular flowers instead of puffed up shapes

Surface Forms

scented penstemon singular
scented penstemons plural

Morphology

scented + Penstemon

This is a straightforward adjective + noun combination: 'scented' (having a fragrance) modifying 'Penstemon' (a genus of flowering plants), so the meaning 'a Penstemon that smells/fragrant' is directly and predictably derived. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift and the compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand it.

Etymology

Scented penstemon is a simple picture: a penstemon is a garden flower and scented means it has a nice smell. Gardeners named plants with strong-smelling blooms this way, so today scented penstemon means 'a penstemon with fragrant flowers'.