western wallflower
- noun
- /ˈwɛstərn ˈwɔːlˌflaʊər/
- US
:
flor de pared occidental
- The bright orange blooms of the western wallflower are a common sight in the spring.
Examples
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Botanists sometimes classify the western wallflower in the genus Cheiranthus.
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We found a cluster of western wallflowers growing along the edge of the prairie trail.
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The western wallflower blooms in the spring.
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I saw a beautiful western wallflower in the garden.
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The bright orange blooms of the western wallflower are a common sight in the spring.
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We found a cluster of western wallflowers growing along the edge of the prairie trail.
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The western wallflower attracts many pollinators with its vibrant flowers.
Synonyms
2
6.0
A small plant with a sweet smell and yellow or orange blooms that grows on old walls
A wildflower with orange-yellow flowers that grows in North American prairies
A plant with orange-yellow flowers that grows in prairies in parts of North America
A plant that lives two or three years with bright orange yellow flowers in western North America
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is a straightforward adjectival modification: 'western' specifies geographic origin of the noun 'wallflower', so the overall meaning is a wallflower species from the west. This compositional pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can accurately infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Western wallflower comes from the simple idea that western shows where the plant lives and wallflower describes a small wild flower that often grows on rocky walls or cliff edges and has bright orange-yellow flowers. So, western wallflower today means 'a plant from western North America' with bright orange-yellow flowers.