spinifex

American  

[spahy-nuh-feks] / ˈspaɪ nəˌfɛks /

noun

spinifex, plural spinifexes plural

1. any of several Australian grasses of the genera Spinifex, Plectrachne, or Triodia, having spiny seeds and stiff, sharp-pointed leaves that grow in dense masses.

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spinifex British  

/ ˈspɪnɪˌfɛks /

noun

1. Also called: porcupine grass.  any of various coarse spiny-leaved inland grasses of the genus Triodia

2. any grass of the SE Asian genus Spinifex, having pointed leaves and spiny seed heads: often planted to bind loose sand

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• spinifex
  plural
• spinifexes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of spinifex

First recorded in 1845–55; from New Latin spīnifex, literally “spine maker,” equivalent to Latin spīn(a) “thorn, spine, backbone” + -i- ( def. ) + -fex ( def. )

Example Sentences

Surrounded by red sandhills, he got down from the vehicle and a night parrot flew up from a clump of spinifex.

From New York Times • Jan. 4, 2022

The researchers said feather was not found in the parrot's usual spinifex habitat but near samphire, a succulent.

From BBC • Sep. 13, 2017

Here she was shown how to grind spinifex resin, and was taken to a grotto knotted with fossils.

From Time Magazine Archive

Here, 450 km below Karratha, the invisible population of the bush busies itself in mounds rising a meter or so above the spinifex scrub.

From Time Magazine Archive

Immediately after starting on this bearing we passed over rather open ground with spinifex but not very strong.

From McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia by McKinlay, John