palmiet, noun

/palˈmit//ˈpalmiːt/
Forms:
Also palmiete, palmite.
Origin:
Dutch, Spanish, PortugueseShow more Dutch, from Spanish and Portuguese palmito diminutive of palma palm.
1. The reed Prionium serratum of the Juncaceae, common in swamps and along river banks, especially in the Western and Eastern Cape, and which has a woody stem topped by a cluster of long, narrow, serrated leaves. Also attributive.
Note:
The young shoots were formerly used as a vegetable, the stems to make ceilings, and the stiff, sharp-edged leaves to weave straw hats, and in thatching.
1786 G. Forster tr. of A. Sparrman’s Voy. to Cape of G.H. I. 42Palmites, a kind of acorus with a thick stem and broad leaves, which grow out from the top, as they do in the palm-tree, a circumstance from which the plant takes its name. These palmites are found in great abundance in most rivers and streams.
[1790 tr. of F. Le Vaillant’s Trav. II. 122The river Palmit, thus named by the Dutch, on account of the great quantity of reeds which grow on its banks.]
1800 Lady A. Barnard S. Afr. Century Ago (1910) 285I am living out of town,..removed from all party work, except working parties in our fields, rooting up of palmite roots and planting of fir trees and potatoes.
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 91Most of the rivers which we passed in this excursion, are choked up with the plant called Palmiet by the colonists..Some notion of the appearance of these plants, may be gained by imagining a vast number of..pine-apple plants, without fruit, so thickly crowded together as to cover the sides and even the middle of the stream, standing seldom higher than three or four feet above the surface.
a1827 D. Carmichael in W.J. Hooker Botanical Misc. (1831) II. 44The channel of this river..is encumbered with the Palmiet, a gigantic species of bog-rush, (Juncus serratus) that spreads and interlaces its creeping stem over the surface, forming a strong elastic net-work, upon which a man may walk without the least fear of sinking.
1829 Govt Gaz. 23 Jan. 8The Slave Boy Adam..had on when he absented himself white shirt, leather jacket and trowsers, and Palmiet hat.
1860 W. Shaw Story of my Mission 56A broad-brimmed hat, made from the leaves of the Palmiet, which grew in some of the streams.
1862 Lady Duff-Gordon Lett. from Cape (1925) 132A troop [of baboons] followed at a distance, hiding and dodging among the palmiets.
1893 ‘Africanus’ in Cape Illust. Mag. July 416We have seen some palmiet shrubs on the high parts, but they are very rare, stunted and generally far from water.
1894 E. Glanville Fair Colonist 177A straw hat that Sally was weaving out of dried palmiet leaves.
1906 B. Stoneman Plants & their Ways 182The Restiaceae..differ from the true rushes to which Palmiet belongs (Prionum palmita).
1910 R. Juta Cape Peninsula 98The Hout Bay Valley has a distinctive charm of its own; its river-bed is overgrown with palmiet.
1913 H. Tucker Our Beautiful Peninsula 41A river, veiled in palmiet, issues from the kloof and flows down to the bay.
1946 V. Pohl Adventures of Boer Family 162During the final year of the war the only hats they possessed were those made by my mother and Sophia from straw, palmiet (a water plant) or mealie leaves.
1957 L.G. Green Beyond City Lights 38It (sc. Huguenot, a suburb of Paarl) was a palmiet jungle in the seventies of last century.
1971 L.G. Green Taste of S.-Easter 82They..gathered an edible palmiet in the vleis.
1985 S. Afr. Panorama Oct. 14In sharp contrast to the ‘De Wet House’ is the reconstructed pioneer dwelling with its palmiet (rush) ceiling and yellowwood floors.
2. nonce. A hat made of the leaves of the palmiet.
1870 H.H. Dugmore Reminisc. of Albany Settler 17The beaver gave way to the home-made palmiet, or coffee straw, and the tiger-skin cap, flat-crowned generally.
The reed Prionium serratum of the Juncaceae, common in swamps and along river banks, especially in the Western and Eastern Cape, and which has a woody stem topped by a cluster of long, narrow, serrated leaves. Also attributive.
A hat made of the leaves of the palmiet.
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