button grass

noun

Any of several grasses with round or globular flower heads; especially Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus, a tussock-forming sedge especially of western Tasmania, forming distinct plains; and Dactyloctenium radulans, an annual grass of mainland Australia.

First used 19th c.
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Meanings

nounbutton grass (uncountable)

alternative buttongrass · alternative button-grass

  1. AustraliauncountableAny of several grasses with round or globular flower heads; especially Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus, a tussock-forming sedge especially of western Tasmania, forming distinct plains; and Dactyloctenium radulans, an annual grass of mainland Australia.First known use 19th c.

    Button-grass plains grew in peaty soil to the water's edge.

    2004, Nicholas Shakespeare, In Tasmania, Harvill Press, p. 73
    1 more example

    [T]he ceiling swelled in waves like an ocean, like a buttongrass plain, like the pocked earth stripped of its trees […].

    1997, Richard Flanagan, chapter 75, in The Sound of One Hand Clapping, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, pages 377–378

Origin

From button + grass.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

button grass. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/button%20grass

MLA

“button grass.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/button%20grass. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “button grass,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/button%20grass.

Source: button grass on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.