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

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 diœciously polygamous; styles and cells of the red or reddish fruit 2 or 3; stem herbaceous, low, simple, bearing a whorl of 3 palmately 3–7-foliolate leaves, and a simple umbel on a slender peduncle.

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

Umbels usually compound, in which case the secondary ones are termed umbellets; the whorl of bracts which often subtends the general umbel is the involucre, and those of the umbellets the involucels.

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

In Eryngium the shortening of the pedicels changes an umbel into a capitulum.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various

Oxlip, oks′lip, n. a species of primrose, having its flowers in an umbel on a stalk like the cowslip.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various