native soil

native soil (plural native soils)

1. (idiomatic, as pertaining to persons) The country or geographical region where one was born or which one considers to be one's true homeland.
   • 1892, Bret Harte, "Colonel Starbottle's Client" in Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Stories:

     [T]hey were peculiarly honored by the unexpected presence in their midst "of that famous son of the South, Colonel Starbottle," who had lately returned to his native soil from his adopted home in California.

   • 1919, Joseph A. Altsheler, The Sun Of Quebec, ch. 4:

     "Look back, Peter," he said, "and you can get your last glimpse of your native soil. The black line that just shows under the sky is Sandy Hook."

   • 2007, Aryn Baker, "A Musharraf Foe's Aborted Return," Time, 10 Sept.:

     Nawaz Sharif, two-time Prime Minister of Pakistan, had planned a triumphant return to his native soil nearly seven years after choosing exile.

2. (idiomatic, as pertaining to animals, plants, things, ideas, etc.) Source, place of origin, principal location, or natural habitat.
   • 1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, ch. 21:

     [B]ut who else from seeing a plant in an herbarium can imagine its appearance when growing in its native soil?

   • 1860, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, ch. 8:

     What a strange idea—what a needless labor—to construct artificial ruins in Rome, the native soil of ruin!

   • 1901, Edith Wharton, "The Recovery" in Crucial Instances:

     An innate passion for all that was thus distinguished and exceptional made her revere Hillbridge as the native soil of those intellectual amenities that were of such difficult growth in the thin air of East Onondaigua.

• (country or geographical region): birthplace, homeland, native ground, native land
• (source, place of origin, natural habitat): native ground