mallee

American  

[mal-ee] / ˈmæl i /

noun

1. any of various dwarf Australian eucalyptuses, as Eucalyptus dumosa and E. oleosa, that sometimes form large tracts of brushwood.

2. the brushwood itself.

---

mallee British  

/ ˈmæliː /

noun

1. any of several low shrubby eucalyptus trees that flourish in desert regions of Australia

2. informal another name for the bush 1

3. See mallee root

---

Etymology

Origin of mallee

First recorded in 1840–50; from Wergaia (an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in the Wimmera area, Victoria) mali

Example Sentences

"I discovered the species while surveying a rare plant in the Goldfields and noticed this bee visiting both the endangered wildflower and a nearby mallee tree," Dr. Prendergast said.

From Science Daily • Nov. 25, 2025

She was at the house she built, surrounded by mallee trees and filled with prints of her own wildlife photographs: grizzly bears from a trip to Alaska, a small chameleon on an electric-green leaf.

From New York Times • Apr. 25, 2019

Or the mallee fowl, which assiduously builds an incubator for its eggs and keeps the temperature inside at a steady 95�, come rain or shine?

From Time Magazine Archive

Stat. r. mallee scrubs        24 Like a small turkey; neck light fawn-gray; back, wings spotted white, black, brown; f., smaller.

From An Australian Bird Book A Pocket Book for Field Use by Leach, John Albert

The convict stared; but, in the perpetual twilight of the mallee that was the only fact to which Moya could have sworn.

From The Shadow of a Man by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)