yellow sand verbena
- noun
- US
:
verbena de arena amarilla
- The yellow sand verbena brightened the dunes with its vibrant blooms in early summer.
Examples
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I photographed a rare yellow sand verbena during my trip to the Oregon dunes.
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Biologists surveyed the population of yellow sand verbena along the Pacific coastline.
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The yellow sand verbena blooms beautifully in the summer.
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Have you seen the yellow sand verbena at the beach?
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The yellow sand verbena attracts many butterflies to the coastal dunes in California.
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During spring, the landscape is filled with yellow sand verbena by the seaside.
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In the summer, the clusters of yellow sand verbena bloom, adding beauty to the sandy shore.
Synonyms
A plant that grows on sandy coasts with round heads of yellow trumpet-shaped flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is transparently compositional: a verbena (a flowering plant) that is yellow and associated with sand/sandy habitats. A B1 learner who knows 'yellow', 'sand', and 'verbena' can infer it refers to a yellow-flowered plant growing in sandy/coastal areas; this descriptive pattern is common cross-linguistically.
Etymology
The name yellow sand verbena comes from the plant's look and where it lives: the words yellow, sand, and verbena point to its bright yellow flowers, its sandy dune home, and its kind of flower. So today yellow sand verbena means 'a plant' with bright, trumpet-shaped blooms that grows on sand near the sea.
