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

Derived 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

The flowers are borne on an erect umbel and central scape with involucre.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various

Spikelets many–few-flowered, mostly flat, variously arranged, mostly in clusters or heads, which are commonly disposed in a simple or compound terminal umbel.

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

Ray, one of the radiating branches of an umbel; the marginal flowers, as distinct from those of the disk, in Composit�, etc.

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

It is a bulbous plant with broad stalked leaves, and an erect scape 1� to 2 ft. long, bearing an umbel of three to ten large white showy flowers.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 8 "Ethiopia" to "Evangelical Association" by Various

Flowers.—Pink; four to eight in an umbel; parts in fives.

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