brakbos, brakbossie, noun

/ˈbrakbɔs(i)/
Forms:
brack-bosch, brak-boschShow more Formerly also brack-bosch, brak-bosch, brak-boschje.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, brak see brak adjective and noun1 + bos, bossie (earlier bosch, boschje, see boschje) bush.
Any of several species of salinaceous plants which flourish in alkaline soil and are palatable to livestock, especially shrubs of the genera Salsola and Atriplex; brak noun1 sense 3; brak-bush. See also ganna sense 1, saltbush sense a.
1824 W.J. Burchell Trav. II. 21The soil..was covered principally with such shrubs and plants as afford alkali: these were the Kanna-bush, and another whose name of Brak-boschjes (Brackish Bushes) indicates that their nature has been well observed by the inhabitants.
1886 G.A. Farini Through Kalahari Desert 439The poor oxen were obliged to be content with feeding on a shrub called brak bosch — the pulpy leaves of which have a strong taste of salt.
1890 A. Martin Home Life 48The brack-bosch..with blue-green leaves, and blossom consisting of a spike of little greenish tufts.
1917 R. Marloth Dict. of Common Names of Plants 15Brak’bos, (Salt bush). Several species of Atriplex are useful food-plants for stock. A. Halimus is the common indigenous salt-bush, frequent along the banks of rivers and on brackish ground of the drier districts.
1927 E.E. Mossop in Smuts & Alberts Forgotten Highway through Ceres & Bokkeveld (1988) 65The parched and black-stemmed ‘vygie’ and the brakbos on a hill with weathered furrows like the kindly lines on an aged mother’s face.
1948 H.V. Morton In Search of S. Afr. 257The brackbosch..is bluey green.
1955 L.G. Green Karoo 133Brakbos, another typical bush, is almost identical with the salt-bush of the Australian sheep-runs.
1966 C.A. Smith Common Names 173The brakbossie possessed individually distinctive properties and qualities which the stock-owners recognized by giving each a specific common name.
1973 Y. Burgess Life to Live 155Nel..was not as overcome at the sight of the Karoo, of the brakbossies and driedorings, or even the aloes,..as she thought she would be.
1988 [see vygie].
Any of several species of salinaceous plants which flourish in alkaline soil and are palatable to livestock, especially shrubs of the genera Salsola and Atriplex; brak noun1 sense 3; brak-bush.
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Afrikaans
brak, nounn.2brak-bush, nounn.
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