Plants grounds surrounding court (8)
I believe the answer is:
cactuses
'plants' is the definition.
The answer is an example.
'grounds surrounding court' is the wordplay.
'grounds' becomes 'causes'.
'surrounding' is an insertion indicator.
'court' becomes 'ct'.
'causes' enclosing 'ct' is 'CACTUSES'.
(Other definitions for cactuses that I've seen before include "plants with bright flowers" , "Spiky desert plants" .)