thyrse

American  

[thurs] / θɜrs /

noun

Botany.

1. a compact branching inflorescence, as of the lilac, in which the main axis is indeterminate and the lateral axes are determinate.

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thyrse British  

/ ˈθɜːsəs, θɜːs /

noun

1. botany a type of inflorescence, occurring in the lilac and grape, in which the main branch is racemose and the lateral branches cymose

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thyrse Scientific  

/ thûrs /

1. A dense inflorescence in which the side branches end in cymes, as in the lilac.

2. Also called thyrsus

3. See more at inflorescence

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Other Word Forms

• thyrsoid adjective

Etymology

Origin of thyrse

1595–1605; < French < Latin thyrsus thyrsus

Example Sentences

Soft-puberulent, 1° high; leaves ovate or oblong, or the lower broadly lanceolate and the upper cordate-clasping, mostly sharply toothed; thyrse short; corolla 2´ long, broadly ventricose, dull purple or whitish.—Prairies,

From Project Gutenberg

Flowers.—White; in a thyrse a foot long; many of them imperfect.

From Project Gutenberg

The shy bud hesitateth still To show the secret thyrse of white.

From Project Gutenberg

Round about him Bacchus fair Bacchantês, Bearing cymbals, flutes, and thyrses, Wild from Naxian groves, or Zantê's Vineyards, sing delirious verses.

From Project Gutenberg

Charley brought me a branch of a Cassia with a thyrse of showy yellow blossoms, which he said he had plucked from a shrub about fifteen feet high.

From Project Gutenberg