Definition of "osmunda" [osmunda]

• Any of several ferns of the genus Osmunda, having erect, bipinnately compound fronds and deeply contracted fertile pinnules. The fibrous roots are sometimes used as a potting medium for cultivated plants, and the young crosiers are used as food. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There are many different media to support orchids inside the pot: osmunda or other tree fern fiber; fir bark, cork or even the jal gravel that give our state its name."
• "Crystal streams and waterfalls are pouring down the hillsides to lose themselves in one of Connemara's many bays, and we have a glimpse of osmunda fern, golden green and beautiful."
• "On and on goes the stream, for it may not stay; leaving of its freshness with the great osmunda that stretches eager roots towards the running water; flowing awhile with a brother stream, to part again east and west as each takes up his separate burden of service -- my friend to cherish the lower meadows in their flowery joyance -- and so by the great sea-gate back to sky and earth again."