Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A usually flat-topped flower cluster in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points of the main stem to approximately the same height.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A hemispherical group of zoöphytes.
- noun In botany: Any flat-topped or convex open flower-cluster.
- noun In a stricter and now the usual sense, a form of indeterminate inflorescence differing from the raceme only in the relatively shorter rachis and longer lower pedicels.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A flat-topped or convex cluster of flowers, each on its own footstalk, and arising from different points of a common axis, the outermost blossoms expanding first, as in the hawthorn.
- noun Any flattish flower cluster, whatever be the order of blooming, or a similar shaped cluster of fruit.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany a
cluster offlowers with a flat orconvex top
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun flat-topped or convex inflorescence in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points on the main stem to approximately the same height; outer flowers open first
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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The stem by which the flower is supported unites at the head of the primary branches into thick, short, irregular bundles, in the form of a corymb.
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The smaller corymbs are arched or convex, causing the cluster or compound corymb to present an uneven surface; the small flowers are of rich old gold colour, and have the appearance of knotted gold cord; they are very rigid, almost hard.
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When cutting these flowers, the whole corymb should be taken, as in this particular case we could not wish for
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In the apple I have observed leafy shoots bearing terminal tufts of leaves where the flower should have been, so that what, under ordinary circumstances would be a corymb of flowers, is here represented by a series of tufts of leaves.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Nevertheless I succeeded in finding it about eight miles west of the Falls; touched it and smelled it, and secured a lingering corymb of flowers for my herbarium.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various
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Joe-Pye-Weed strode along with his dull pink corymb proudly elevated above the throng.
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In dry, open woodlands, thickets, and roadsides, from August to October, we find the dainty White Wood Aster (_A. divaricatus_) -- _A. corymbosus_ of Gray -- its brittle zig-zag stem two feet high or less, branching at the top, and repeatedly forked where loose clusters of flower-heads spread in a broad, rather flat corymb.
Wild Flowers Worth Knowing Neltje Blanchan 1891
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_Flower-heads_ -- Bright yellow, 1 to 2 in. across, numerous, borne on long peduncles in corymb-like clusters; the rays 3 to 5 cleft, and drooping around the yellow or yellowish-brown disk.
Wild Flowers Worth Knowing Neltje Blanchan 1891
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It is a perennial herb with short rootstocks and stout stems bearing numerous short-peduncled heads in large compact corymb; it multiplies itself abundantly by seeds and is very common on the sand dunes of Holland.
Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation Hugo de Vries 1891
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Flowers white, tinged with red, disposed in a small terminal corymb, standing upon nodding peduncles and appearing in June and July.
General directions for collecting and drying medicinal substances of the vegetable kingdom : list and description of indigenous plants, etc., their medicinal properties, forms of administration, and doses, Confederate States of America. Surgeon General 1862
biocon commented on the word corymb
In addition, corymb = a cluster of ivy-berries or grapes (OED).
December 5, 2011
ramyeon commented on the word corymb
I do love that the "b" is pronounced, however quietly. A wonderful word.
June 25, 2012