Spinifex

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tough, spiny Australian grass that grows in dense mounds across dry inland regions ; a hardy arid-zone plant whose sharp leaves form prickly clumps
2. Coarse spiky grass native to the deserts of Australia, forming hummock-like tufts ; a genus of hardy desert grasses found in the arid interior
3. A prickly grass of the Australian outback that grows in rounded tussocks ; a group of spiny, drought-tolerant grasses native to arid central regions

Etymology: Spinifex is a genus name built from two Latin parts: "spina", meaning "spine", and "-fex", meaning "maker", from the verb "facere", "to make". A spinifex is, literally, a spine-maker, a name that fits the plants' sharp, stiff leaves. The word is best known today for Australian grasses of the genus Triodia, whose spiky clumps dominate vast stretches of the arid interior. The same word also names a feature of rock. Komatiite, a rare volcanic rock from the Komati Valley in South Africa, shows a distinctive texture made of dendritic plates of olivine, which resemble the radiating growth of the grass clumps. Geologists borrowed the botanical name for that pattern, so one Latin compound now describes both a desert plant and a crystal structure in ancient lava.