understory

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

By keeping fire out of the state’s wildlands altogether, California has grown thick with branches, brush and understory that are now acting as fuel for the state’s ever-larger blazes.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2025

These practices over time yielded "mosaics" of forests made up of diverse patches of trees varying in age, density, and overstory and understory composition.

From Science Daily • Apr. 10, 2024

Coffee is an understory plant: It grows best under a canopy of shade-providing trees.

From Salon • Oct. 23, 2023

The disease can spread quickly in younger trees, killing saplings and understory beech at a high rate.

From Washington Times • Oct. 20, 2023

Pushing her way through the saplings and fallen branches, she found the arrow thirty yards into the trees, its red fletches bright against the mottled green understory.

From "The Reader" by Traci Chee