fever tree, noun phrase

Origin:
See quotation 1984.
1. The tall tropical tree Acacia xanthophloea of the Leguminosae (sub-family Mimoseae), remarkable for its powdery yellowish-green bark.
1893 Blennerhassett & Sleeman Adventures in Mashonaland 99These ‘fever trees’ are a species of mimosa, with pallid boles and livid green foliage, and the experienced explorer always avoids their neighbourhood.
1908 R. Kipling Just So Stories (1937) 59At last he (sc. the Elephant’s Child) came to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 168Fever trees,..This name is applied ‘up country’ to a species of mimosa (Acacia xanthophloea), because the trees are supposed to indicate that the locality in which they grow is unhealthy for Europeans.
1922 J. Stevenson-Hamilton Low-Veld 53In some swampy land below the kopjes are growing a number of the curious so called ‘fever trees’ (Acacia xanthophloea) handsome in their peculiar way, and some of them quite fifty feet high.
a1936 E.N. Marais Rd to Waterberg (1972) 89The river-banks are thick with gigantic forest trees, some evergreen — like the sinister ‘fever trees’, with their ghastly yellow trunks, characteristic of Komatipoort and other malarial areas.
1937 C. Birkby Zulu Journey 115No man who has ever seen fever trees will ever forget them...Tall and gnarled, like some weird dead thing that is not yet dead...Twisted, naked trunks tinted a vivid sulphurous-yellow, and their greenery-yallery branches are covered with a slimy bloom.
1958 H. Wicht Rd below Me 146There are still groves of fever trees, yellow-barked and leprous.
1984 A. Wannenburgh Natural Wonder of Sn Afr. 139Fever trees..were long thought to cause malaria...However, the association stems from the fact that the trees grow well in swampy areas, the ideal breeding ground for the malarial mosquito.
1990 W.R. Tarboton in Fauna & Flora No.47, 12In many of the lower-lying ravines the spectacular, giant-leaved forest fever tree is found.
2. Any of several species of gum-tree (Eucalyptus), so called because of their antifebrile properties; but see also quotation 1917.
1896 R. Wallace Farming Indust. of Cape Col. 24Millions of the Australian ‘blue-gum’ or ‘fever tree,’ Eucalyptus globulus, Labill., have been planted within a few miles of Johannesburg.
1917 R. Marloth Dict. of Common Names of Plants 151Frequently planted in South Africa are E[ucalyptus] globulus, the Blue gum, also called Fevertree, because it has proved itself very effective for rendering swampy localities habitable by drying them up.
1970 Beeton & Dorner in Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.1 No.2, 2‘Fever tree’ is also applied to various other trees, eg species of Eucalyptus, on account of their alleged anti-febrile medicinal properties.
The tall tropical tree Acacia xanthophloea of the Leguminosae (sub-family Mimoseae), remarkable for its powdery yellowish-green bark.
Any of several species of gum-tree (Eucalyptus), so called because of their antifebrile properties; but see also quotation 1917.
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