umbel

A flat-topped or rounded flower cluster in which the individual flower stalks arise from about the same point, characteristic of plants in the parsley family, such as Queen Anne’s lace.

In the spicular elements of the hexactinellid sponges, a straight shaft or rhabd with rays at one end grouped together in the form of an umbel.

An inflorescence consisting of a number of flower-stalks or pedicels, nearly equal in length, spreading from a common center, their summits forming a level, convex, or even globose surface, more rarely a concave one, as in the carrot. See cuts under inflorescence, Thapsia, and Œnanthe.

In zoology, an umbelliform tuft, cluster, or group of parts, as of polypites borne upon a polypidom. See cut under Umbellularia.

A kind of flower cluster in which the flower stalks radiate from a common point, as in the carrot and milkweed. It is simple or compound; in the latter case, each peduncle bears another little umbel, called umbellet, or umbellule.

A flat–topped or rounded flower–cluster (= inflorescence) in which the individual flower stalks arise from the same point, the youngest flowers being at the centre.

flat-topped or rounded inflorescence characteristic of the family Umbelliferae in which the individual flower stalks arise from about the same point; youngest flowers are at the center