In this article we will discuss about the meaning of inflorescence.
Flowers are specialised organs meant only for reproduction and have nothing to do with the maintenance of the plant itself. This is further evident from the fact that in many plants flowers come as the fore-runners of death.
Flowers may arise singly, as in China-rose, or more commonly, in groups at the axils of special leaves or at the terminal position. A branch or a branch system bearing a cluster of flowers is called an inflorescence.
The stalk of a single flower is called peduncle. In case of an inflorescence, the branched floral axis is called rachis. The branches are the pedicels. Flowers having pedicels are called pedicellate and those without pedicels or stalks are sessile. The inflorescence axis developing from an underground stem is known as scape, as in onion, tube-rose.
Bracts:
Flower buds, like the leaf buds, develop either at the apex of the stem or at the axils of special leaves called bracts. The bracts are generally small green bodies, though in some cases they become brightly coloured. Flowers having bracts are called bracteate and those without bracts are called ebracteate.
Bracts may be:
(i) Leaf-like or foliaceous, as in Adhatoda (B. Basak);
(ii) Coloured and boat-shaped, called spathe, surrounding the whole or major part of the inflorescence, as in banana, arum;
(iii) Petaloid or brightly coloured like petals of the flowers, as in Poinsettia (B. Lalpata);
(iv) Small membranous glumes, as in paddy, and grass;
(v) Scaly, as in the florets of sunflower;
(vi) Involucre, forming a whorl of bracts surrounding the inflorescence, as in sunflower, marigold, etc.; and
(vii) Epicalyx, a whorl of green bracts placed beneath the calyx, as in China-rose.