sweet gale

9.9

A small bush that grows in wet places and has bitter leaves with a strong smell

noun

: mirtillo

In wetland areas, you can often find sweet gale growing alongside other shrubs and wildflowers.

Examples

Many birds are attracted to sweet gale due to its unique leaves and environmental benefits.
Some of the shrubs are black chokeberry, blue huckleberry, silky willow, swamp azalea, and sweet gale.

Academic text (2011)
The gardener planted sweet gale in the boggy section of the landscape to add variety and fragrance.

Synonyms

Myrica gale

vssweet gale

Specialized

9.9

A small shrub with a strong smell and bitter leaves that grows in bogs

gives the same meaning but uses a simpler descriptive phrase

Scotch gale

vssweet gale

9.9

A small bush with bitter, fragrant leaves that grows in wet places

phrases the idea as a general description instead of using an alternate term

Surface Forms

sweet gale singular

sweet gales plural

Morphology

sweet + gale

This is a lexicalized common name for a shrub; although 'sweet' signals fragrance, the head 'gale' does not transparently denote a plant or 'shrub of bogs' (and is otherwise known as 'strong wind'), so the overall meaning cannot be derived from the parts. Common names for plants are often arbitrary or historically fixed, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the botanical meaning.

Etymology

Sweet gale may come from how people once talked about the plant: they called it sweet for its 'pleasant smell' and gale from an old word for a bog shrub. So the name points to a shrub with bitter, scented leaves that people used to flavor ales and keep insects away.