standing crop

American  

noun

1. the totality of living things in an ecosystem at a given time.

2. a growing crop.

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Etymology

Origin of standing crop

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

"If I don't use glyphosate to ripen the standing crop before harvest, I have to use more diesel to burn, to dry the crop", he said.

From BBC • May 6, 2026

His own studies have demonstrated that stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in leaves end up, via shredding invertebrates, stored away in the flesh of salamanders — like “a standing crop of nutrients,” he said.

From New York Times • Apr. 7, 2014

The corn eaten early in the season was undoubtedly from the standing crop.

From Food of the Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos Brehm, in South-central Kansas by Platt, Dwight

The prince carried his bluff head with that air which almost invariably bespeaks a stormy youth, and looked out over mankind from his great height as over a fine standing crop of wild oats.

From The Vultures by Merriman, Henry Seton

As these last are harvested the feeding area of the buntings becomes restricted, so that eventually every patch of standing crop is alive with buntings.

From A Bird Calendar for Northern India by Dewar, Douglas