1892 14 667 How dense this plant-covering of the alluvial soil is would best be shown by a picture of the curious network of mangrove roots.
1946 2 Nov. 605/1 Nomadism..a mode of life, indeed, in which defacement of the plant-covering by ploughing or digging is the worst of economic offences.
1995 D. R. Palmer xvi. 136 At the beginning of the dry season, aircraft saturated the dense jungle with chemical defoliants, killing the luxuriant plant covering.