grass tree Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun 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
    Cordyline australis; cabbage tree.
  2. noun any of several Australian evergreen perennials having short thick woody stems crowned by a tuft of grasslike foliage and yielding acaroid resins
    Australian grass tree.
  3. noun gaunt Tasmanian evergreen shrubby tree with slender tapering leaves 3 to 5 feet long
    Richea pandanifolia; tree heath.

WordNet

Grass" tree"
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) (a) An Australian plant of the genus Xanthorrhoea, 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).

Webster 1913