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Grove (nature)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A grove near Radziejowice, Poland.

A grove is a small group of trees with minimal or no undergrowth, such as a sequoia grove, or a small orchard planted for the cultivation of fruits or nuts. Other words for groups of trees include woodland, woodlot, thicket, and stand. A grove may be called an 'arbour' or 'arbor' (see spelling differences), which is not to be confused with the garden structure pergola, which also sometimes goes under that name.

Name

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Palm grove at Orihuela, Spain

The main meaning of grove is a group of trees that grow close together, generally without many bushes or other plants underneath.[1] It is an old word in the English language, with records of its use dating as far back as the late 9th century as Old English grāf, grāfa ('grove; copse') and subsequently Middle English grove, grave; these derive from Proto-West Germanic *graib, *graibō ('branch, group of branches, thicket'), from Proto-Germanic *graibaz, *graibô ('branch, fork').

It is related to Old English grǣf, grǣfe ('brushwood; thicket; copse'), Old English grǣfa ('thicket'), dialectal Norwegian greive ('ram with splayed horns'), dialectal Norwegian greivlar ('ramifications of an antler'), dialectal Norwegian grivla ('to branch, branch out'), Old Norse grein ('twig, branch, limb'), and cognate with modern English greave.

Cultivation

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Naturally-occurring groves are typically small, perhaps a few acres at most. In contrast, orchards, which are normally intentional planting of trees, may be small or very large, like the apple orchards in Washington state, and orange groves in Florida.

Cultural significance

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A mango grove in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines.

Historically, groves were considered sacred in pagan, pre-Christian Germanic and Celtic cultures. Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen argues that "we can assume that sacred groves actually existed due to repeated mentions in historiographical and ethnographical accounts. e.g. Tacitus, Germania."[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ The dictionary definition of grove at Wiktionary
  2. ^ Jacobsen, Helen F. Leslie. "The Sacred Grove in Scandinavian/Germanic Pre-Christian Religion". University of Bergen. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

Further reading

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