Last Updated: September 26, 2008

Umbel

A flower cluster in which all stalks arise from the same center point.

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Umbel: View from below a carrot

umbel-with-plane.jpg

 
 

Umbel: Shadows

It’s interesting to me that “umbel” comes from the Latin root “umbra,” meaning shadow. Umbel, then, describes not the flower itself, or even the shape of the flower, but rather the effect the flower has on its surroundings. Perhaps the word was chosen by an ant, relaxing in the shade of one such plant.

 
 

Umbel: Brooklyn Botanical Garden & Downtown

Reading the dictionary. Everyone wants to do this one day, don’t they? Like the Bible, or James Joyce’s Ulysseus, isn’t this task something we all will get around to accomplishing eventually in our lives? It’s been my role in this project to find words that resonate, surprise, and provoke the imagination. From the seemingly obscure and irrelevant to the profound and surprisingly forgotten, I have chosen words that send the imagination spinning. Umbel is probably our most botanical word, one that at first did not jump out at me, as it seemed so plant-specific, removed from any other realm of daily existence. But, simply put, I adored the sound of the word. Umbel. Umbel. Umbel. It just plain feels good on the tongue to say. Newly educated, I began to see umbrella-shaped flora all over town! Upon a bit deeper level of research, I discovered this is also the root word for umbrella? and so a lovely visual poem came to mind. I found a thriving carrot (yes, an umbel) plant one sunny day in the vegetable section of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and then patiently awaited a rainstorm in downtown Brooklyn. The sky and the earth below determined the direction and timing of my production.


 
 

Umbel: Definition

Umbel: (Science: plant biology) A racemose inflorescence in which all the individual flower stalks arise in a cluster at the top of the peduncle and are of about equal length.

  • Definition from 2007 © Biology-Online.org.

Umbel (n.): A flat-topped or rounded flower cluster in which the individual flower stalks arise from about the same point, as in the geranium, milkweed, onion, and chive.

[New Latin umbella, from Latin, parasol, diminutive of umbra, shadow.

  • Definition from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Examples of Umbel: Geranium, Milkweed, Onion, Chive, Carrot, Parsley, Dill.