Umbel Synonyms

The tufted head or umbel is likened by Pliny to a thyrsus.

At the base of the general umbel in umbelliferous plants a whorl of bracts often exists, called a general involucre, and at the base of the smaller umbels or umbellules there is a similar leafy whorl called an involucel or partial involucre.

When the axis is so shortened that the secondary axes arise from a common point, and spread out as radii of nearly equal length, each ending in a single flower or dividing again in a similar radiating manner, an umbel is produced, as in fig.

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

In Saxifraga umbrosa (London-pride) and in the horse-chestnut we meet with a raceme of scorpioid cymes; in sea-pink, a capitulum of contracted scorpioid cymes (often called a glomerulus); in laurustinus, a compound umbel of dichasial cymes; a scorpioid cyme of capitula in Vernonia scorpioides.