panicle

American  

[pan-i-kuhl] / ˈpæn ɪ kəl /

noun

Botany.

1. a compound raceme.

2. any loose, diversely branching flower cluster.

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panicle British  

/ ˈpænɪkəl /

noun

1. a compound raceme, occurring esp in grasses

2. any branched inflorescence

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panicle Scientific  

/ păn′ĭ-kəl /

1. A branched indeterminate inflorescence in which the branches are racemes, so that each flower has its own stalk (called a pedicel) attached to the branch. Oats and sorghum have panicles.

2. See illustration at inflorescence

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Other Word Forms

• panicled adjective

Etymology

Origin of panicle

1590–1600; < Latin pānicula tuft (on plants), diminutive of pānus thread wound on a bobbin, a swelling, ear of millet < Doric Greek pânos ( Attic pênos ) a web; see -i-, -cle ¹

Example Sentences

The vine produces a panicle of lovely half-inch flowers in midsummer, each pointing downward and similar in shape to a tomato’s, but far more dramatically colored.

From New York Times • Jul. 27, 2017

A tree 20–60° high; leaflets 4–9 pairs, obliquely lanceolate, sharply acuminate, entire, 1½–3´ long; the rhachis of the leaf not winged; flowers white, in a large panicle, fruit mostly globose, 6´´ broad.

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

Stigmas plumose.—Perennials, with narrow involute leaves and a loose panicle.

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

Perennial; panicle diffuse, ample, the staminate and pistillate flowers intermixed; awns short; styles united; grain ovate.—Penn.

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

Varies, in less brackish swamps, with thinner elongated linear-lanceolate leaves, tapering to each end, and more erect racemes in a narrower panicle.

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