Hort. [f. SUB- 3 + SHRUB sb.1, to render mod.L. suffrutex (see SUFFRUTICOSE). Cf. the earlier undershrub.] An undershrub, very small shrub.

1

1851.  Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 11. The double-flowered varieties … may be … treated as perennial sub-shrubs.

2

  So Subshrubby a., resembling a subshrub, suffruticose.

3

1843.  Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), IV. 140. It is a dwarf and compact-growing plant, apparently of an evergreen herbaceous or subshrubby habit.

4

1851.  Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 67. Mathiola incana, the queen stock, is a sub-shrubby kind.

5

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.

6