silk tree

1 7.4

A tree with soft, showy pink flowers and feathery leaves that people plant in gardens

noun
/sɪlk tri/

: árbol de seda

The silk tree's long, silky stamens make it a stunning ornamental choice for landscaping.

Examples

There was a big silk tree outside the window of the dispensary.

Fiction book (1992)
The flowers of the silk tree, a pale suffused pink, floated up against the unusual blue sky of an interval in the rainy season.

Fiction book (1992)
Put him under the silk tree?

Sankofa (1993)
Put him under the silk tree?

Sankofa (1993)
The silk tree will fall on my baby.

Sankofa (1993)
The silk tree is known for its beautiful pink flowers and feathery leaves.
In the garden, the silk tree attracted many butterflies with its fragrant blossoms.

Synonyms

Albizzia julibrissin

vssilk tree

Specialized

9.9

A small decorative tree from Asia with feathery leaves and clusters of pink, fluffy flowers

is the common everyday name used for the same ornamental tree

Surface Forms

silk tree singular

silk trees plural

Morphology

silk + tree

The compound simply denotes a type of tree characterized by silk-like features (e.g. long, silky stamens), so a learner who knows 'silk' and 'tree' can infer it refers to a tree with silky qualities. This is a compositional, descriptive noun–noun compound rather than an idiom, following common cross-linguistic naming patterns.

Etymology

The noun silk tree comes from the look of its flowers: each blossom has many long, thread-like parts that look like silk, so the whole tree can seem covered in silk. That's why the name now means a pretty 'decorative' tree often grown for its silky-looking flowers.