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.

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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

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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

In the Mallee country there is abundance of work, cutting down mallee, picking up dead wood, rabbit destruction, etc.

From Austral English A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia by Morris, Edward Ellis