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

Flowers.—White; sometimes blue; in a thyrse three to seven inches long, one to four thick.

From The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits by Parsons, Mary Elizabeth

Flowers in a terminal thyrse or dense panicle, often polygamous, most of them with imperfect pistils and sterile; pedicels jointed.

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

Un chardon bleu, pas m�me, au suaire, ni cirse Offrant, r�ve ch�tif et d�dain du jardin, Ne f�t-ce qu'une �pine � s'en former un thyrse.

From Contemporary Belgian Poetry Selected and Translated by Jethro Bithell by Various

Heads in a compound terminal corymb, not at all racemose 37–40 Heads small, mostly clustered in the axils of feather-veined leaves 3–7 Heads mostly large, in a terminal thyrse; leaves feather-veined.

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

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

From Enamels and Cameos and other Poems by Lee, Agnes