Grass tree Bot. (a) An Australian plant of the genus Xanthorrhœa, having a thick trunk crowned with a dense tuft of pendulous, grasslike leaves, from the center of which arises a long stem, bearing at its summit a dense flower spike looking somewhat like a large cat-tail. These plants are often called “blackboys” from the large trunks denuded and blackened by fire. They yield two kinds of fragrant resin, called Botany-bay gum, and Gum Acaroides. (b) A similar Australian plant (Kingia australis).
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grass tree
n 1: 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 [syn: cabbage tree, Cordyline
australis]
2: any of several Australian evergreen perennials having short
thick woody stems crowned by a tuft of grasslike foliage
and yielding acaroid resins [syn: Australian grass tree]
3: gaunt Tasmanian evergreen shrubby tree with slender tapering
leaves 3 to 5 feet long [syn: tree heath, Richea
pandanifolia]