How to Use understory in a Sentence

understory

noun

• The sword ferns in the understory were more brown than green.
  — Manjula Martin, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2021
• Not only the big old trees, but the open patches, the new young growth, the canopy and understory, the dead and downed wood, and the soil.
  — Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 18 July 2021
• In the understory of the old forest, a seed bank lay in waiting.
  — Jenny Staletovich, miamiherald, 27 Aug. 2017
• The canopy was far more closed, the understory far more open; Berenguer and Xarope didn’t even need to prune the trail for our visit.
  — Alex Cuadros, New York Times, 4 Jan. 2023
• There will also be browse at deer-height in the understory.
  — Jason Tome, Outdoor Life, 17 Feb. 2021
• And their size — and the size of everything around them, like jumbo-sized ferns in the understory — can mess with your sense of scale.
  — Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2022
• The deer weaved through a tangle of understory and vanished from sight.
  — Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 17 Nov. 2022
• Hike the Big Beech Woods, an old-growth forest of mossy logs and understory trees and centuries-old canopies.
  — The Courier-Journal, 28 Sep. 2022
• The understory is a sprawl of ferns and vines and the buttressed roots of trees that rise to form a nearly solid canopy high overhead.
  — Seija Rankin, EW.com, 22 Jan. 2020
• The plants grew quick and strong, leaving canopies that crowded out any other plants that might have tried to take a foothold in the understory.
  — Denise Coffey, Courant Community, 12 Dec. 2017
• Katuk likes the understory, with dappled shade, but not deep shade.
  — Kenneth Setzer, miamiherald, 24 May 2017
• These trees prefer a moister soil than the understory of tall pine trees would provide.
  — oregonlive, 22 Feb. 2020
• Many fruits fall below the plants, which creates a dense understory of seedlings.
  — Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 19 Nov. 2022
• Fall or winter are good times to visit, though, when there are less bugs and understory, allowing you to take in the full size of the trees.
  — Chelsey Lewis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 24 Oct. 2019
• The trees grow thin and tall, allowing for native species to flourish in the understory.
  — Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Feb. 2023
• Eighty-two feet up the tower, Richardson emerges above the dark understory of the Harvard Forest to feel a flush of sunlight and a flick of breeze on his face.
  — Josie Garthwaite, Discover Magazine, 27 May 2014
• This is routed through a series of ravines for 2.6 miles with giant trees and a lush understory.
  — Tom Stienstra, SFChronicle.com, 21 Aug. 2019
• An understory of ferns, lupines and tall grasses laps at the legs as hikers take on the gentle inclines.
  — Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 5 Aug. 2023
• Fern fanned out in the understory, along with canelo trees, bamboo, and tall, slender alerce, for which this park is named.
  — New York Times, 27 July 2022
• The understory in this case was about loyalty, justice and fears for the future.
  — Amanda Ripley, Time, 17 Apr. 2021
• And the sparrows that flit through the shrubby understory of the woodlands and forage with rustling sounds amid the fallen leaves—the song sparrow and the whitethroat—have also been found among the victims of the sprays.
  — Rachel Carson, The New Yorker, 1 Jan. 1950
• The reason out-of-control boars are destroying the understory in the Pasoh Forest, the researchers say, isn’t a dearth of tigers.
  — National Geographic, 21 Dec. 2017
• His work here is to become part of the fauna, to enter the understory, to encode himself in nature.
  — Michael Paterniti Kiese Makeba Laymon Carina Del Valle Schorske Dessa Irina Aleksander Sam Dolnick Mark Binelli Maggie Jones Rob Hoerburger Jamie Lauren Keiles Devin Gordon Jazmine Hughes Jenna Wortham Jade Chang Taffy Brodesser-Akner Kaitlyn Greenidge Reginald Dwayne Betts Rowan Ricardo Phillips Wesley Morris Ismail Muhammad Anthony Giardina, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2020
• Privet on the other hand will exist, as a wisp, in the understory of a forest just waiting for an opening.
  — Jefferson County Cooperative Extension, AL.com, 29 Mar. 2018
• Leaves in the understory are blackish-green platters, often dusty with pollen, and thinner than those above.
  — Rebecca Giggs, The Atlantic, 17 June 2021
• Plant understory trees and shrubs under the canopy of larger shade and evergreen trees.
  — Jennifer Rude Klett, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1 Oct. 2020
• Red-cockadeds won’t carve cavities in pines where the understory is tall and dense.
  — National Geographic, 17 Sep. 2020
• Good air circulation under the tree canopy is said to help and can be accomplished by cutting some of the lower limbs to open up the understory.
  — Jeff Lowenfels, Alaska Dispatch News, 30 June 2017
• American hornbeam and flowering dogwood Evolved to thrive in the dappled shade of the forest understory with a small footprint, the hornbeam handles city heat and compact soil.
  — Bishop Sand, Washington Post, 6 July 2024
• Record-high temperatures and this extreme drought have sapped the Amazon’s trees of their moisture, leaving the forest understory littered with woody debris that has grown dry, primed to ignite.
  — Quentin Septer, WIRED, 11 Mar. 2024

Last Updated: 1 Nov 2024