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.

---

umbel British  

/ 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

---

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.

---

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

See Examples For:

umbel

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

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

Here the pedicels are sometimes called the Rays of the umbel.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray

The general umbel, though often naked, is commonly furnished with one, two, or as far as five, very slender leaves; each partial one has often as many as eight.

From Lachesis Lapponica A Tour in Lapland by Carl von Linn?

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 Asa Gray

The shortening of these pedicels, so as to render the flowers sessile or nearly so, converts a raceme into a Spike, and a corymb or an umbel into a Head.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray