Hort. [f. SUB- 3 + SHRUB sb.1, to render mod.L. suffrutex (see SUFFRUTICOSE). Cf. the earlier undershrub.] An undershrub, very small shrub.
1851. Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 11. The double-flowered varieties may be treated as perennial sub-shrubs.
So Subshrubby a., resembling a subshrub, suffruticose.
1843. Florists Jrnl. (1846), IV. 140. It is a dwarf and compact-growing plant, apparently of an evergreen herbaceous or subshrubby habit.
1851. Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 67. Mathiola incana, the queen stock, is a sub-shrubby kind.
1856. Delamer, Fl. Gard., 107. The terms sub-shrubby plants and suffruticose trees have been invented, to designate those individuals which occupy intermediate positions in the long series of the vegetable kingdom.