Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a grouping of flowers on a plant.

California Buckeye – photo courtesy Barry Breckling

These groups fall into some basic arrangements that are useful to learn for identifying plants.

Click on any of the types below to learn more about them.

Types of Inflorescences

1. Flowers can connect directly to the stem.

All drawings on this page are from Wikimedia Commons

Spikes stick up. Catkins droop down.

Head flowers connect directly to a base at the top of the stem.

2. Alternatively, flowers can connect to the stem via a stalk (called a pedicel, which is Latin for “little foot”).

Umbel stalks come to the stem at a single point.

Raceme stalks connect along the stem.

Panicles have branching stalks.

For more on inflorescences, see Wikipedia.

Corrections/Comments: bruce@PlantID.net