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

Flowers yellow, terminal in a sort of corymb.

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

The shortening of these pedicels, so as to render the flowers sessile or nearly so, converts a raceme into a Spike, and a corymb or an umbel into a Head.

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

A compound corymb is a corymb some branches of which branch again in the same way, as in Mountain Ash.

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

It is a perennial herb with short rootstocks and stout stems bearing numerous short-peduncled heads in large compact corymb; it multiplies itself abundantly by seeds and is very common on the sand dunes of Holland.

From Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation by Vries, Hugo de

Smooth, slender; leaves very narrowly linear, mostly 1-nerved, dotted; heads obovoid-club-shaped, in numerous clusters of 2 or 3, disposed in a loose corymb; rays 6–12.—Sandy fields, Mass. to Ill., and southward; common near the coast.

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