money tree

plural money trees

1. An imaginary tree from which money can be plucked. See money doesn't grow on trees.

   Maybe we could learn how to grow money trees.

   1967, Canadian Parliament, House of Commons Debates, volume 1, page 699

   3 more examples

   Money does not grow on trees. There is no money tree at Mount Kildare. If we had a money tree, boys, there would be no need of the bakery, no need of the raffle.

   2004, Leo Furey, The Long Run, page 86

   But there isn't a magic money tree that we can shake, that suddenly provides for everything that people want.

   2017, Question Time (television), spoken by Theresa May, via BBC

   Her rival […]argued for fiscal responsibility and warned that such a reckless policy would lead to a run on the pound and a calamitous series of mortgage-rate rises. Given this choice, the electorate for the Tory leadership[…]preferred the magical money tree.

   2022 October 14, Tom McTague, “The Liz Truss Travesty Becomes Britain’s Humiliation”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms: magic money tree

2. namebusinessThe Malabar chestnut, Pachira aquatica.

   Synonyms: Guiana chestnut, provision tree, saba nut

3. The jade plant, Crassula ovata.

   Synonyms: friendship tree, money plant

4. The cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao.
5. Chinesehuman sciencesA kind of holy tree believed to bring money and good fortune.
6. USA miniature tree sculpture decorated with currency, often used as a raffle prize or a gift.

   2003, North Carolina Folklore Society, North Carolina Folklore Journal, Volumes 50-53, page 23, Some families offer elaborate money trees, fashioned from decorated branches and streamers made of bills carefully pinned together […] .

   2 more examples

   1972, American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, American Association of Industrial Nurses, Occupational Health Nursing, Volume 20, page 26, NIAIN′s one money making project of the year, a money tree, was raffled off and won by Virginia Call of Bell and Howell.

   2001, Daniel J. Brown, Chapter 11: School Voluntarism, Social Capital, and Civil Society, Heinz-Dieter Meyer, William Lowe Boyd (editors), Education: Between States, Markets, and Civil Society: Comparative Perspectives, Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, page 173, Donations from teachers and others were converted into coinage for a money tree that was raffled for $500.

7. AustraliaA cheap tree sculpture, decorated with currency, used as a raffle prize because it would be illegal to offer a cash prize.