Inflorescence

Aloe hereroensis, showing inflorescence with branched peduncle
Amorphophallus titanum has the world's largest unbranched inflorescence. Photo of the plant in bloom in 2000 at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Florida, US

An inflorescence, in a flowering plant, is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches.[1] An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a main axis (peduncle) and by the timing of its flowering (determinate and indeterminate).[2]

Morphologically, an inflorescence is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed on the axis of a plant. The modifications can involve the length and the nature of the internodes and the phyllotaxis, as well as variations in the proportions, compressions, swellings, adnations, connations and reduction of main and secondary axes.[citation needed]

One can also define an inflorescence as the reproductive portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Guertin, P., Barnett, L., Denny, E.G., Schaffer, S.N. 2015. USA National Phenology Network Botany Primer. USA-NPN Education and Engagement Series 2015-001. www.usanpn.org.
  2. ^ "Inflorescence | Racemes, Spikes & Cymes | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-11-03.