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Glite Dictionary
🪴 A houseplant 🌳 A North American tree
umbrella tree

umbrella tree

7.6
An evergreen plant often grown indoors with leaves that spread like an umbrella
  • noun
  • /ʌmˈbrɛlə tri/
  • Australian
translation icon : árbol paraguas
  • The umbrella tree in the garden adds a tropical feel with its beautiful, fan-shaped leaves.

Examples

  • The tall umbrella tree is a popular choice for landscaping because of its unique shape and lush foliage.

  • Our neighbor planted an umbrella tree to provide shade during the hot summer months.

  • They are as old as the umbrella tree on the sandy hook, all in their eighties at least, and they forget things, daily things like weather and eating and where they are and who's dead and alive, but they never forget that they are ladies.

    Fiction book (2002)

Synonyms

Brassaia actinophylla
vsumbrella tree
  • Australian
9.7

A small evergreen tree with umbrella-shaped leaves often grown indoors or in gardens

is the common name used instead of that scientific name
Schefflera actinophylla
vsumbrella tree
  • Specialized
9.9

A small evergreen tree with shiny, hand-shaped leaves often grown as a houseplant

is the general common label rather than the formal species name

Surface Forms

umbrella tree singular
umbrella trees plural

Morphology

umbrella + tree

The compound 'umbrella tree' is transparently built from 'umbrella' (a canopy/umbrella shape) + 'tree' and denotes a tree with umbrella-like leaves or a canopy. This is a straightforward descriptive noun-noun compound that follows common cross-linguistic naming patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Umbrella tree names an evergreen shrub from Australia whose leaf clusters spread out in a round top like an umbrella. That's why people call it an umbrella tree—the plant looks like a small tree that gives a lot of 'shade'.