umbel

American  

[uhm-buhl] / ˈʌm bəl /

noun

Botany.

1. an inflorescence in which a number of flower stalks or pedicels, nearly equal in length, spread from a common center.

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umbel British  

/ ʌmˈbɛlə, -ˌleɪt, ˈʌmbɪlɪt, ˈʌmbəl /

noun

1. an inflorescence, characteristic of umbelliferous plants, in which the flowers arise from the same point in the main stem and have stalks of the same length, to give a cluster with the youngest flowers at the centre

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umbel Scientific  

/ ŭm′bəl /

1. A flat or rounded indeterminate inflorescence in which the individual flower stalks (called pedicels) arise from about the same point on the stem at the tip of the peduncle. The geranium, milkweed, and onion have umbels. Umbels usually show centripetal inflorescence, with the lower or outer flowers blooming first.

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Other Word Forms

• umbellate
  adjective
• umbellately
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of umbel

1590–1600; < Latin umbella a sunshade, parasol, derivative of umbra shadow, shade; for formation see castellum

Example Sentences

A variety of fennel, F. dulce, having the stem compressed at the base, and the umbel 6-8 rayed, is grown in kitchen-gardens for the sake of its leaves.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various

Achene lenticular or triangular, naked at the apex.—Culms mostly triangular, simple, leafy at base, and with one or more leaves at the summit, forming an involucre to the umbel or head.

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.—Three to fifteen inches high; umbel two- to twenty-flowered.

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

So no more at present from your obegent umbel Servant, Bung.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 62, January 1, 1872 by Various

Usually floating; leaves thicker, round-reniform, 3–7-cleft, the lobes crenate; peduncles 1–3´ long, reflexed in fruit; capitate umbel 5–10-flowered; fruit 1–1½´´ broad; ribs rather obscure; seed-section oblong.—E. Penn. to Fla., thence westward.

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