overstory

[ oh-ver-stawr-ee, -stohr-ee ]

/ ˈoʊ vərˌstɔr i, -ˌstoʊr i /

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noun, plural o·ver·sto·ries.

the uppermost layer of foliage in a forest, forming the canopy.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

Origin of overstory

1480–90, for an earlier sense; 1955–60 for current sense; over- + story²

Powers’s previous novel, The Overstory, won a Pulitzer Prize, and now Bewilderment has been longlisted for the National Book Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Richard Powers on His New Book ‘Bewilderment’|lwhelan|November 5, 2021|Outside Online
On many parts of tribal land, most of the trees in the overstory survived.
Prescribed burns can keep wildfires in check. So why are politicians standing in the way?|Madeline Ostrander/Undark|October 27, 2021|Popular-Science
Comparisons to The Overstory are inevitable, both because that book was enormously successful and influential, and because it was also a call to action for the health of our planet.
Richard Powers’s New Book Tries to Get Us to Care About the Climate Crisis|lwhelan|October 5, 2021|Outside Online
Richard Powers’ 2018 novel The Overstory, which won that year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, followed decades of the MacArthur Fellow’s work investigating the intersections of culture, the environment, science and technology.
Richard Powers on His Latest Book, Bewilderment—And Why Children Are the Ones to Call Out Climate Change Evasion|Elijah Wolfson|September 23, 2021|Time

The dominant and codominant plants in the overstory (trees or shrubs) were noted at each station.
Comparative Ecology of Pinyon Mice and Deer Mice in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado|Charles L. Douglas
One shows associations of dominant overstory and understory plants.
Comparative Ecology of Pinyon Mice and Deer Mice in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado|Charles L. Douglas
Artemisia tridentata and Artemisia nova form the overstory in unit F and part of G.
Comparative Ecology of Pinyon Mice and Deer Mice in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado|Charles L. Douglas
The trapping areas in the first three mentioned had heavy growths of grass and an overstory of shrubs.
Comparative Ecology of Pinyon Mice and Deer Mice in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado|Charles L. Douglas