Grass Tree (Noun)
Meaning 1
Any of several Australian evergreen perennials having short thick woody stems crowned by a tuft of grasslike foliage and yielding acaroid resins.
Classification
Nouns denoting plants.
Examples
- The Xanthorrhoea, commonly known as grass tree, is native to Australia and can be found in a variety of environments, from the coast to the arid deserts of the inland.
- Botanists consider the slow growth of the grass tree to be a result of the extreme environments where the species typically grows.
- Wildlife including kangaroos, koalas, and other small marsupials may utilize the long stalk of a mature grass tree for climbing, while various bird species also build nests on its stem.
- Although fires and grass trees seem incompatible at first, fire appears to actually have been part of their development for many thousands of years in some cases in which regrowth seems only stimulated in several fire stressed locations across southern Western Australia.
- Plantings featuring low grasses are mixed together with tall grass trees to blend well into nearly any style of garden design that would have a somewhat Australian look.
Synonyms
Meaning 2
Gaunt Tasmanian evergreen shrubby tree with slender tapering leaves 3 to 5 feet long.
Classification
Nouns denoting plants.
Examples
- The unique black heartwood of the grass tree is highly prized for furniture making and woodworking projects.
- After a fire, a grass tree can grow a new trunk and foliage from its base, which is an adaptation to the often fiery environment of its native Tasmania.
- In Tasmanian gardens, the grass tree is often used as a specimen plant due to its striking, architectural foliage.
- The long, slender leaves of the grass tree resemble grasses, providing the plant with its distinctive common name.
- As a drought-tolerant and low-maintenance plant, the grass tree has become popular in modern Australian landscaping.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Meaning 3
Elegant tree having either a single trunk or a branching trunk each with terminal clusters of long narrow leaves and large panicles of fragrant white, yellow or red flowers; New Zealand.
Classification
Nouns denoting plants.
Examples
- Native to New Zealand, the grass tree typically grows on rugged rocky terrain and poor soils, but is also grown in gardens for its unique flowers.
- A characteristic sight in coastal forests of northern New Zealand, the grass tree flowers have a sweet fragrance that attracts a wide range of native birds.
- During bushfires its grass tree thick underground trunk may enable it to resprout, allowing the grass tree to tolerate regular fires that kill other plants.
- Most individual grass tree has a single trunk, either terminating in a single panicle, or more frequently branching into a smaller crown, each stem with panicles.
- The New Zealand grass tree features long slender leaves with a stem just under a foot in length, clustering at the tips of the usually vertical stems.