ˈwire-grass
[f. wire n. + grass n.]
A name for various grasses or grass-like plants having wiry stems.
1. U.S. The British flat-stemmed meadow-grass Poa compressa, or the annual grass Eleusine indica, naturalized in North America.
| 1793 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 294 Wire-grass, which is Poa compressa. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 341 The wire-grass, which grew among the trees the previous year, is frequently set on fire..in the spring. 1856 Gray Man. Bot. (1860) 554 Eleusine Indica. Dog's-tail or Wire Grass. 1883 Harper's Mag. Oct. 710/2 The wire-grass had been roughly plaited into a little mat. |
2. One of several other plants, as the West Indian Paspalum filiforme, the Australian Tetrarrhena (or Ehrharta) juncea, the North American Sporobolus junceus and species of Aristida.
| 1790 W. Bligh Narr. Mutiny on Board H.M.S. Bounty 48 In the hollow of the land there grew some wire grass. 1824 W. J. Burchell Trav. II. 5 The Wire-grass of the island of St. Helena. 1864 Grisebach Flora W. Ind. Isl. 789 Wire-grass, Paspalum filiforme. 1883 E. M. Curr Recoll. Squatting Victoria viii. 81 The wire-grass, however, largely predominating over the kangaroo grass. |