Grove (nature)

A grove is a small group of tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s with minimal or no undergrowth, such as a sequoia grove, or a small orchard

Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

 planted for the cultivation of fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

s or nuts

Nut (fruit)

A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

. Other words for groups of trees include woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

, copse, woodlot

Woodlot

A woodlot is a term used in North America to refer to a segment of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products such as wood fuel, sap for maple syrup, sawlogs, as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower appreciation...

, thicket or spinney

The primary meaning of "grove" is simply a group of trees that grow close together, generally without many bushes or other plants underneath. It is an old word in English, existing more than 1,000 years ago, but it's of unknown origin.

Naturally occurring groves are typically small, perhaps a few acres at most. Orchards, by contrast, may be small or very large indeed, such as the apple orchards in Washington state; but to complicate matters, crops of oranges (as in Florida) are usually known as orange groves, and they too can be enormous.