panicle

American  

[pan-i-kuhl] / ˈpæn ɪ kəl /

noun

Botany.

1. a compound raceme.

2. any loose, diversely branching flower cluster.

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panicle British  

/ ˈpænɪkəl /

noun

1. a compound raceme, occurring esp in grasses

2. any branched inflorescence

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panicle Scientific  

/ păn′ĭ-kəl /

1. A branched indeterminate inflorescence in which the branches are racemes, so that each flower has its own stalk (called a pedicel) attached to the branch. Oats and sorghum have panicles.

2. See illustration at inflorescence

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Other Word Forms

• panicled adjective

Etymology

Origin of panicle

1590–1600; < Latin pānicula tuft (on plants), diminutive of pānus thread wound on a bobbin, a swelling, ear of millet < Doric Greek pânos ( Attic pênos ) a web; see -i-, -cle ¹

Example Sentences

The vine produces a panicle of lovely half-inch flowers in midsummer, each pointing downward and similar in shape to a tomato’s, but far more dramatically colored.

From New York Times • Jul. 27, 2017

Heads very small in slender spreading secund clusters forming a mostly short and broad panicle; leaves entire or nearly so.

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

Heads small, in a narrow virgate or thyrsoid panicle; scales thin, acute; leaves nearly entire.

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

Scape more distinctly striate; panicle closely crowded; capsule short-pointed.

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 diœcious, small, in a terminal naked panicle; herbage sour; some leaves halberd-shaped; smooth perennials, spreading by running rootstocks, flowering in spring.

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