Spinifexes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Coarse, spiny grasses native to the arid regions of Australia that form dense, prickly tussocks in desert sand
2. Tough, sharp-leaved grass plants of the Australian outback that grow in clumps across dry, sandy terrain
3. Hardy desert grasses of Australia whose stiff, needle-like leaves form prickly mounds on the sandy plains

Etymology: Spinifex is a plant genus name, coined in Latin-based scientific style from "spina" ("spine") and "-fex", a combining form meaning "maker," from the Latin verb "facere" ("to make"). The name thus describes a spine-maker, a fitting label for grasses whose stiff, sharp-tipped leaves bristle across the Australian deserts they dominate. The genus Triodia is the best-known home of the name, with species such as the green Triodia pungens and the blue-grey Triodia basedowii. The word has a second life in geology. Komatiite, a volcanic rock named after the Komati Valley in South Africa, shows a distinctive texture called spinifex, formed by dendritic plates of olivine that grow in feathery, spiny patterns as the lava cools. Geologists borrowed the plant name because the rock's crystal structure looks like the clumped, radiating grass. "Spinifexes" is simply the plural, referring to several plants or several rock formations of this kind.