water plantain
- noun
- Specialized
:
alismas
- As Ayla waded back to the shore, she also gathered water plantain to cook and tangy watercress to eat raw.
Examples
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Common plants include sweet flag, water plantain, purple avens, blue iris, marsh marigold, sundrops, water smartweed, and several kinds of white-flowered aster.
Academic text (1998) -
In the wetlands, you can find water plantain with its broad leaves and delicate white flowers.
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The water plantain grows abundantly in marshy areas, often blooming in clusters during the summer.
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She observed the water plantain thriving alongside other marsh plants in the quiet pond.
Synonyms
A water plant with broad leaves and small white or pink flowers that grows in marshes and shallow water
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound simply names a plantain that grows in or near water; a learner who knows 'water' and the botanical sense of 'plantain' can infer this meaning. This is a straightforward noun-noun composition (similar to waterlily, watercress) and follows common cross-linguistic compounding patterns, so the sense is immediately transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Water plantain comes from how the plant looks and where it grows: it has broad, flat leaves like a plantain and lives in water. So the name simply means a 'plantain that grows in wet places'.
