Short scruffy wanderer, taken short, finds a tree (8)
I believe the answer is:
mangrove
'a tree' is the definition.
(mangrove is a kind of tree)
'short scruffy wanderer taken short' is the wordplay.
'short scruffy' becomes 'mang' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'wanderer' becomes 'rover' (synonyms).
'taken short' means to remove the last letter.
'rover' with its last letter taken away is 'rove'.
'mang'+'rove'='MANGROVE'
'finds' is the link.
(Other definitions for mangrove that I've seen before include "Tree growing on tropical coasts and in muddy swamps" , "whose roots may be waterlogged" , "Shrub" , "one that's swamped?" , "that grows in swamps" .)