corymb

American  

[kawr-imb, -im, kor-] / ˈkɔr ɪmb, -ɪm, ˈkɒr- /

noun

Botany.

1. a form of inflorescence in which the flowers form a flat-topped or convex cluster, the outermost flowers being the first to open.

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corymb British  

/ ˈkɒrɪmb, -rɪm /

noun

1. an inflorescence in the form of a flat-topped flower cluster with the oldest flowers at the periphery. This type of raceme occurs in the candytuft

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corymb Scientific  

/ kôr′ĭmb,-ĭm /

1. An indeterminate inflorescence whose outer flowers have longer stalks than the inner flowers, so that together they form a round cluster that is rather flat on top. The outer flowers open before the inner ones. Yarrow and the hawthorn have corymbs.

2. See illustration at inflorescence

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Other Word Forms

• corymbed
  adjective
• corymblike
  adjective
• corymbose
  adjective
• corymbosely
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of corymb

1700–10; < Latin corymbus < Greek kórymbos head, top, cluster of fruit or flowers

Example Sentences

Rather tall; leaves somewhat fleshy, lyrate or pinnate, the divisions or leaflets crenate or cut-lobed, variable; heads small in a naked corymb; rays 6–12, conspicuous.—Wet grounds, N. Car. to S. Ill.,

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Flowers yellow, terminal in a sort of corymb.

From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Thomas, Jerome Beers

Leaves simple, lance-linear, sharply serrate with appressed teeth; corymb loose; rays 8–12, much longer than the broader campanulate involucre; flowers white.—Mass.,

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

The corymb and the umbel being more or less level-topped, bringing the flowers into a horizontal plane or a convex form, the ascending order of development appears as Centripetal.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

By extreme shortening of the axis the corymb may be converted into 207.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa