The Australian National Dictionary beta

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xanthorrhoea /zænθə′riːə/ n. [From Xanthorrhoea, plant genus name from Greek xanthos ‘yellow’ + rheō ‘flow’, referring to the yellow resin exuded by the type species, X. resinosa. The genus was named by J.E. Smith in Trans. Linn. Soc. London (1798) IV. 219.]
1. Any plant of the genus Xanthorrhoea of all States, varying in form from herb-like plants to small trees, many species bearing a tall flowering spike rising from the crown of grass-like leaves. See also grass tree 1 a.

[1798 Trans. Linnean Soc. London IV. 219 Xanthorrhoea hexandria Monogynia… Char. essent. Corolla infera [etc.].]1814 R. Brown Gen. Remarks Bot. Terra Australis 44 Xanthorrhoea  ..  is in habit one of the most remarkable genera of Terra Australis.   1822 B. Field in G. Mackaness Fourteen Journeys Blue Mountains 7 Oct. (1950) ii. 32 Xanthorrhoea, the sceptre of Flora… New South Wales is a perpetual flower garden.   1847 E.W. Landor Bushman 40 There is the xanthorea, or grass-tree, a plant which cannot be intelligibly described to those who have never seen it.   1855 J. Bonwick Geogr. Aust. & N.Z. (ed. 3) 202 The Xanthorrhea or Grass-tree throws up a spike of flowers, 5 to 8 feet high; the resin is a balsam.   1892 Austral. Town & Country Jrnl. (Sydney) 26 Nov. 32/3 Immediately in front of them an xanthorrhoea, or grass tree, reared its eight feet spike of flowers.   1932 Central Qld. Herald (Rockhampton) 3 Mar. 2/3 The Xanthorrhoeas, or grass trees, form another very prominent feature in the vegetation of some parts of this district.   1987 J. Isaacs Bush Food 124 Early photographs of Aborigines show them sealing Xanthorrhoea ‘trees’ twice the height of a human. Today such specimens are extremely rare.   1995 Canberra Times 29 Oct. 24/5 On your travels around town, take a look at the Xanthorrhoeas in new raised pavement planters outside the National Gallery.   2005 Sydney Morning Herald 18 June (Good Weekend Suppl.) 42/2 Its entry road meandering through a made (but unmistakably local) landscape of vines and olives, old-man xantherias [sic] and giant river red gums.   2010 C. Williams Medicinal Plants in Aust. I. 104 Xanthorrhoeas have a shallow widespread root system that is mostly lost when they are excavated.


2. Special Compound:

   xanthorrhoea resin a resin exuded from the plant, used as a glue etc.

1868 H. Watts Dict. Chem. V. 1054 Xanthorrhoea resin.   1887 West Austral. (Perth) 27 Oct. 3/6 The so called ‘Black Boy Gum’ is a Xanthorrhoea resin of a similar character to the grass-tree gum shown in the other Australian departments.   1923 Daily News (Perth) 3 Jan. 7/4 It might be feasible to use Xanthorrhoea resin in Germany for making picric acid when this would not be economically possible in the United Kingdom.   1944 Bull. Imperial Inst. (London) Jan. 77 There are no recent figures for the availability of Xanthorrhoea resin.   1955 Austral. Jrnl. Chem. 263 The complex mixture of aromatic compounds found in Xanthorrhoea resins.   1974 Austral. Jrnl. Chem. 331 Reported occurrences of compounds in all Xanthorrhoea resins are summarized.   1995 Canberra Times 29 Oct. 24/6 A century ago, xanthorrhoeas were harvested for resin extraction. The Department of NSW Agriculture records that a commercial operation was established on Kangaroo Island which remains today, its main sales being vials of xanthorrhoea resin to tourists.