Found 1 items, similar to phormium tenax.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Phormium tenax Flax-plant \Flax"-plant`\, n. (Bot.) A plant in new Zealand (Phormium tenax), allied to the lilies and aloes. The leaves are two inches wide and several feet long, and furnish a fiber which is used for making ropes, mats, and coarse cloth. [1913 Webster] Phormium \Phor"mi*um\, n. [NL. fr. Gr. ? a plaited mat, a kind of plant.] (Bot.) A genus of liliaceous plants, consisting of one species (Phormium tenax). See Flax-plant. [1913 Webster] New Zealand \New` Zea"land\ A group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. [1913 Webster] New Zealand flax. (a) (Bot.) A tall, liliaceous herb (Phormium tenax), having very long, sword-shaped, distichous leaves which furnish a fine, strong fiber very valuable for cordage and the like. (b) The fiber itself. New Zealand tea (Bot.), a myrtaceous shrub (Leptospermum scoparium ) of New Zealand and Australia, the leaves of which are used as a substitute for tea. [1913 Webster]