Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An inflorescence having stalked flowers arranged singly along an elongated unbranched axis, with the flowers at the bottom opening first.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cluster; specifically, in botany, a simple inflorescence of the centripetal or indeterminate type, in which the several or many flowers are borne on somewhat equal axillary pedicels along a relatively lengthened axis or rachis.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A flower cluster with an elongated axis and many one-flowered lateral pedicels, as in the currant and chokecherry.
  • noun one having the lower pedicels developed into secondary racemes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany An indeterminate inflorescence in which the flowers are arranged along a single central axis.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun usually elongate cluster of flowers along the main stem in which the flowers at the base open first

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin racēmus, a bunch of grapes.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin racēmus ("cluster, bunch").

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Examples

  • In the monstrous fruit the axis is prolonged, and forms a kind of raceme or catkin, surrounded at the base by numerous bracts, as in many _Amentaceæ_.

    Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

  • Birth flower, May, lily of the valley, stemless convallariaceous herb, Convallaria majalis, with a raceme of drooping, bell-shaped fragrant white flowers.

    The Memory Palace Mira Bartók 2011

  • Birth flower, May, lily of the valley, stemless convallariaceous herb, Convallaria majalis, with a raceme of drooping, bell-shaped fragrant white flowers.

    The Memory Palace Mira Bartók 2011

  • One of the specimens had a raceme of flowers above a foot long.

    Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia 2003

  • The raceme, which appears about the sixth to the tenth month, will take sixty days more to ripen; good stocks produce three and more bunches a year, each weighing from twenty to eighty pounds.

    Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo 2003

  • The sun-bird flashes from raceme to raceme, sampling a dozen blooms, while his noisy rival sips with the air of a connoisseur at one.

    The Confessions of a Beachcomber 2003

  • The flower cluster (raceme), supported on a stout stalk, consists of 180 to 200 short-stalked flowers arranged in threes around the axis.

    Chapter 10 1996

  • When she removed it to join in the raceme qua­drille, the torchlight caught the deep auburn tints of her hair.

    Prayers To Broken Stones Simmons, Dan 1990

  • The flower cluster (raceme), 'supported on a stout stalk, consists of 180 to 200 short-stalked flowers arranged in threes around the axis.

    Chapter 24 1990

  • The flowers are cinnamon-scented, sessile in 1-2 simple raceme-like spikes from the axils.

    Chapter 37 1987

Comments

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  • Citation on arcate.

    June 5, 2008