corymb
Americannoun
noun
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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.
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See illustration at inflorescence
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of corymb
1700–10; < Latin corymbus < Greek kórymbos head, top, cluster of fruit or flowers
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A large number of the stigmas on several of the other corymbs were repeatedly smeared with pollen from their own corymb; but they yielded only five very poor seeds, which were incapable of germination.
From Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom by Darwin, Charles
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
If in a raceme the lower flower-stalks are developed more strongly than the upper, and thus all the flowers are nearly on a level, a corymb is formed, which may be simple, as in fig.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various
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
Corymbose, in corymbs, or in the form of a corymb.
From The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits by Parsons, Mary Elizabeth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
