saltbush

[sawlt-boo sh]

noun

any of various plants or shrubs of the genus Atriplex, having mostly alternate leaves and clusters of inconspicuous flowers, often growing in saline or alkaline soil.

Origin of saltbush

1860–65; salt¹ + bush¹, so called because they thrive in saline or alkaline soils

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for saltbush

Historical Examples of saltbush

What was that thing moving over yonder in that bunch of saltbush?
Dust of the Desert
Robert Welles Ritchie
For the first seven miles over rough trap hills lightly grassed, when we entered samphire and saltbush flats for four miles.
Explorations in Australia
John Forrest
Among exotics the Australian saltbush spreads successfully over the worst alkali land.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 1
Various
The valley floor and valley terraces are dotted with saltbush, rabbitbrush, greasewood, and sagebrush.
Aztec Ruins National Monument--New Mexico
John M. Corbett
The saltbush clumps and spinifex patches conceal hideous reptiles.
In Search of El Dorado
Alexander MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for saltbush

saltbush

noun

any of various chenopodiaceous shrubs of the genus Atriplex that grow in alkaline desert regions

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012