The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word TREE FERN
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
R
E
E
F
E
R
N
More clues leading to the result TREE FERN
- Large plant seabird observed crossing sandbank
- Seabird crossing land offshore to find vegetation
- Salt, reefer, nautical, carrying plant
- Big shady plant seabird’s seen across ridge
- Bird circling ridge to find tropical plant
- Growth of tumour now starts to restrict joint
- Plant joint inside empty tin
- Large plant producing drug in Tennessee
- Plant illegal fag in empty tin
- Seabird circling key tropical plant
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "vegetation" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case vegetation = tree fern.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.