Is the '- etum' suffix exclusive to tree plantations?
Solution 1:
You can find all the words in the OED ending in this sequence of letters by searching for *etum.
For those of you without access to OED, this site would also work, but it uses a different syntax (regex), which is harder to use but is ultimately more powerful; you'd want to search for etum$.
By doing such a search, it is possible to find words such as:
- decretum
- tapetum
- secretum
- acetum
- papaveretum *
- quinetum *
However none of the above are formed from the -etum (plant) suffix you are asking about (the words marked with * are formed with a different -etum suffix, from the word acetum). There are several words I found that use the -etum (plant) suffix that are about plants, but not trees:
- fruticetum: "a collection of shrubs" (etymology: "Latin fruticetum a place full of shrubs or bushes, < frutex shrub, bush") — OED
- filicetum: "a collection of living ferns" — OED
I was able to find one word using the -etum (plant) suffix that is not related to plants at all:
- sulphuretum: "an ecological community of organisms, mainly consisting of sulphur bacteria, which metabolizes sulphur compounds in a closed subcycle of the larger environmental sulphur cycle." — OED