brushwood

Etymology

brush + wood

noun

1. Branches and twigs fallen from trees and shrubs.
   His pupils assemble every evening before his tent; where, by the light of a large fire, made of brushwood and cow’s dung, they are taught a few sentences from the Koran, and are initiated into the principles of their creed. 1799, Mungo Park, chapter 12, in Travels in the Interior of Africa, volume 1
   Small streams with hollowed-out banks came into sight, and the tiniest mill-ponds with frail dams, and little villages with low peasant huts under dark roofs, often with half their thatch gone, and small threshing barns all tilted to one side with walls made out of woven brushwood and gaping openings beside dilabidated hay-barns […] 1991, Ivan Turgenev, chapter 3, in Fathers and Sons, Oxford University Press, page 14
2. Small trees and shrubs.
   Houses had been deserted, and the thick brushwood of the tropics had grown up over everything, obliterating the brief authority of man. 1920, R. B. Cunninghame Graham, chapter 12, in A Brazilian Mystic, Being the Life and Miracles of Antonio Conselheiro, London: Heinemann, page 169