‖ suffrutex Bot.
(ˈsʌfruːtɛks)
Pl. suffrutices (sʌˈfruːtɪsiːz); also 7 erron. -ages (but cf. fruitage 3).
[mod.L., f. suf- = sub- 23 + frutex.]
A plant having a woody base, but a herbaceous annual growth above.
| 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 27 A fourth kind [of plant] which they cal Suffutrex [sic] a mean betwene the Herbe and the shrub. 1691 Ray Creation i. (1692) 154 Odoriferous and ever-green Shrubs and Suffrutices. a 1706 Evelyn Silva (1776) 509 Herbaceous Suffrutages. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Suffrutex, is a low Woody perennial Plant, that sends out no leaves from its Roots; and beginning to be branch'd from the very bottom of the Stalk, as Lavender, Sage, Rue, and the like. 1866 in Treas. Bot. |