spikelet

American  

[spahyk-lit] / ˈspaɪk lɪt /

noun

Botany.

1. a small or secondary spike in grasses; one of the flower clusters, the unit of inflorescence, consisting of two or more flowers and subtended by one or more glumes variously disposed around a common axis.

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spikelet British  

/ ˈspaɪklɪt /

noun

1. botany the unit of a grass inflorescence, typically consisting of two bracts (glumes) surrounding one or more florets, each of which is itself surrounded by two bracts See lemma 1 palea

2. the small inflorescence of plants of other families, esp the sedges

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spikelet Scientific  

/ spīk′lĭt /

1. A small spike, especially one that is part of the characteristic inflorescence of grasses and sedges. A grass spikelet consists of one or more florets (reduced flowers). Each floret contains a pistil and stamens and is enclosed by two bracts, the lemma and the palea. At the base of the entire spikelet are two additional scalelike bracts, the glumes.

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Etymology

Origin of spikelet

First recorded in 1785–95; spike ² + -let

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spikelet

On my desk, now, there’s a glass vial containing a single ear of wheat, each spikelet charred black at its edges.

From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2022

Culms sharply triangular, capillary, twisting when dry; spikelet 2–3´´ long, few-flowered; conical-beaked tubercle much smaller than the achene.

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

Each of these "streamers" is, in fact, a young grass-plant, budded off "viviparously," as it is called, from the flower-head, or "spikelet," and having nothing to do with the proper fertilized seed or grain.

From More Science From an Easy Chair by Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir

Glumes conspicuous, nearly side by side in front of the spikelets, 2 for each spikelet, forming an involucre to the cluster.

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

One spikelet of each pair sterile and shortly pedicelled, the other fertile, sessile and sunk in the rhachis.

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