tree fern ExamplesWord Origin noun
- any of various ferns, mostly tropical and chiefly of the family Cyatheaceae, that attain the size of trees, sending up a straight trunklike stem with foliage at the summit.
Origin of tree fern First recorded in 1840–50 Examples from the Web for tree fern Historical Examples of tree fern
The larva feeds on Cyathea dealbata (tree-fern) in September.
New Zealand Moths and Butterflies
G. V. Hudson
It may be the same day as that of the Tree-fern, or one as remote as you please from it, before or after.
Philip Henry Gosse
A Tree-Fern, Dicksonia arborescens, with a young one near its base.
Asa Gray
We had one tree-fern that rose from the centre of a rockery, and spread itself over it like a handsome umbrella.
Ada Cambridge
Acrogen, ak′ro-jen, n. a plant that grows at the top chiefly, as a tree-fern.
Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D)
Various
British Dictionary definitions for tree fern tree fern noun
- any of numerous large tropical ferns, mainly of the family Cyatheaceae, having a trunklike stem bearing fronds at the top