vegetable hummingbird
- noun
- Australian
:
hummingbird vegetal
- The vegetable hummingbird is often grown in tropical gardens for its beautiful flowers and edible leaves.
Examples
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Many Southeast Asian dishes use the blossoms of the vegetable hummingbird as a key ingredient.
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The vegetable hummingbird thrives in warm climates with plenty of sunlight and water.
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The vegetable hummingbird is known for its bright flowers.
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Have you ever seen a vegetable hummingbird in bloom?
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Many Southeast Asian dishes use the blossoms of the vegetable hummingbird as a key ingredient.
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The vegetable hummingbird is often grown in tropical gardens for its beautiful flowers and edible leaves.
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The vegetable hummingbird thrives in warm climates with plenty of sunlight and water.
Synonyms
A tropical tree with loose clusters of red or pink flowers often grown for its edible flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines the clear nouns 'vegetable' and 'hummingbird', so learners can guess it refers to a plant associated with hummingbirds (or a plant resembling a hummingbird), but they cannot reliably infer the precise meaning — a specific small tropical tree with edible flowers. This is a species/common-name construction: the relation is partly transparent but the exact referent and edible-tree sense are not predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Vegetable hummingbird comes from the plant's long, curved flowers that look like a small hummingbird, while its blossoms and leaves are eaten like a vegetable in many tropical places, so the name links the bird-like shape with its use as food.
