Rodents surrounding brown trees (7)

I believe the answer is:

rattans

'trees' is the definition.
(rattan is a kind of tree)

'rodents surrounding brown' is the wordplay.
'rodents' becomes 'rats' (rat is a kind of rodent).
'surrounding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'brown' becomes 'tan' (tan is a kind of brown).
'rats' enclosing 'tan' is 'RATTANS'.

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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