switch cane
- noun
- Specialized
:
caña de switch
- The wetland restoration project included planting native switch cane to prevent soil erosion.
Examples
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Early settlers used switch cane to make baskets and fishing rods.
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Dense patches of switch cane covered the swampy ground along the riverbank.
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The switch cane grows abundantly in wetlands.
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Many birds build nests in switch canes.
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Dense patches of switch cane covered the swampy ground along the riverbank.
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The wetland restoration project included planting native switch cane to prevent soil erosion.
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Early settlers used switch cane to make baskets and fishing rods.
Synonyms
A small cane grass that grows in wet places in the southeastern United States
A grass like reeds that grows in wet places like marshes, often in the southern United States
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound's meaning ('a small cane') is directly derivable from combining 'switch' (a pliant twig) with 'cane' (a flexible stem), yielding a subtype of cane made of a switch-like stem. This noun+noun composition to name a specific kind of plant is a common, compositional pattern and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Switch cane is a thin, bendy reed that grows in wet places. People used its long stems like a small rod called a 'switch' to make baskets and fishing poles, so the parts switch and cane explain that this cane was used as a 'switch'.
