milk-bushn.
/ˈmɪlkbʊʃ/, U.S. /ˈmɪlkˌbʊʃ/, Australian English /ˈmɪlkˌbʊʃ/, South African English /ˈmɪlkbʊʃ/ Any of various shrubs or small trees of the southern hemisphere which have a milky sap and are often succulent; esp. (a) South African and Indian English, the small tree Euphorbia tirucalli (family Euphorbiaceae), native to Africa and cultivated or naturalized in parts of India and South-East Asia; (b) Australian the shrub Wrightia saligna (family Apocynaceae), formerly used as a fodder plant; (c) Australian the caustic bush, Sarcostemma australe.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > tree or shrub groups > spurges and allies > [noun]
physic nut1657
milk-bush1696
milk-tree1698
poison-bush1740
jatropha1754
milky-hedge1773
milk hedge1780
chandelier plant1827
Jew bush1830
candelabrum1834
poinsettia1836
slipper-plant1848
coquillo1851
zebra poison1871
oil tree1879
picture-tree1885
slipper spurs1887
monkey fiddle1913
milk plant1965
stringwood-
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular tree or plant yielding useful gum or resin > rubber trees or plants > [noun]
milk-bush1696
hule1846
seringa1847
seringue1850
jintawan1851
gutta-percha1860
taban1861
melkbos1862
rubber plant1863
palay1866
Honduras rubber1870
hevea1878
tunu1883
black rubber vine1887
guayule1906
kok-saghyz1932
1696 J. Ovington Voy. Suratt 514 Goats..in India sustain themselves by grazing on the Milk-bush, the ordinary Hedge of that Country.
1780 I. Munro Narr. Mil. Operations (1789) 80 Thorn hedges are sometimes placed in gardens; but in the fields the milk bush is most commonly used.
1818 C. I. La Trobe Jrnl. Visit S. Afr. 133 The milk-bush (ficus), a tree not unlike a Portugal laurel.
1861 J. A. Grant Jrnl. 27 May in Walk across Afr. (1864) v. 79 After we had entered the first milk-bush enclosure, there were several cleanly-swept windings.
1882 E. A. Floyer Unexplored Baluchistan 15 Pitching the tent so as to enclose three large milk bushes.
1883 O. Schreiner Story Afr. Farm i. i. 3 The milk-bushes with their long, finger-like leaves..were touched by a weird and an almost oppressive beauty as they lay in the white light.
1897 L. Lindley-Cowen West Austral. Settler's Guide 489 The indigenous valuable fodder plant, known locally as the ‘milk-bush’.
1907 Nature 17 Jan. 288/1 The common milkbush of the karroo and karroid regions of the interior, viz. Euphorbia mauritanica.
1926 J. M. Black Flora S. Austral. iii. 463 S[arcostemma] australe, R. Br. Milk Bush; Tableland Caustic Bush.
1965 Austral. Encycl. VI. 84/1 Milkbush, a popular name for several shrubs or small trees with a milky sap, especially Wrightia saligna in the family Apocynaceæ.
1966 E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo xvi. 259 The milk bush grows here, the Euphorbia mauritanica of botanists, with its long, smooth, fleshy, yellow-green stems.
1984 A. Brink Wall of Plague I. 213 They go down the slope under the bridge, following the red footpath that runs between milk bushes and proteas.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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