[Cf. G. wasserbaum.]
† 1. A tree that grows by the water-side or in watery ground. Obs.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, VII. xiv. 823. There are two sorts of trees in generall: the one is called water trees, or trees delighting to grow in or neere vnto the brinkes of waters.
1612. R. Ch., Olde Thrift newly revived, 51. Will not these trees which you haue tearmed water trees, grow in any other place then in low waterie grounds?
2. A tree that yields a watery juice; applied, e.g., to the pitcher-plant of Ceylon, Nepenthes distillatoria, the African climbing shrub Tetracera alnifolia, and the Australian tree Hakea leucoptera.
For red-water tree see RED-WATER 3.
1759. B. Stillingfleet, Misc. Tracts (1762), 76. The water-tree in Ceylon produces cylindrical bladders, covered with a lid; into these is secreted a most pure, and refreshing water.
1866. Treas. Bot., s.v. Tetracera, T. potatoria [1874 T. alnifolia] is called the Water-tree at Sierra Leone, on account of its climbing stems yielding a good supply of clear water when cut across.
1894. C. D. Tyler, in Geog. Jrnl., III. 484. The cetico, or water-tree [of S. America], is a variety of the bombax, or silk-cotton tree.
1898. Morris, Austral English, Water-tree, a tree from which water is obtained by tapping the roots, Hakea leucoptera, R. Br.
