How to Use inflorescence in a Sentence

inflorescence

noun
  • This gives the whole flower head (inflorescence) a lighter and more airy feel.
    — Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 8 May 2020
  • Flowers with four petals are borne on terminal inflorescences and lack bracts.
    — Elizabeth Waddington, Treehugger, 28 Aug. 2023
  • In white fonio, the inflorescence is composed of 3–5 digitate racemes with spikelets in pairs or threes.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Many sagos are flowering, and your plant has produced a female inflorescence.
    — Tom MacCubbin, OrlandoSentinel.com, 9 June 2018
  • Astilbe can vary considerably as to plant size, inflorescence shape, leaf color and shape, and bloom period.
    — Judy Nauseef, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 May 2026
  • What really sets off my allergies this time of year—the start of blockbuster season—is the inflorescence of cinephilia.
    — Jason Kehe, Wired, 21 Apr. 2020
  • White cycad scale is one of these that seems to sneak into the plantings to quickly cover trunks, leaves and inflorescence of the sagos to cause their decline.
    — Tom MacCubbin, OrlandoSentinel.com, 3 June 2017
  • In most flowers, sepals are a whorl of green, known as a calyx, at the base of the petals, but here sepals, which are pointed, make up the entire inflorescence.
    — Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Another inflorescence won’t occur for a while, adds Sprindis to the AP.
    — Sara Hashemi, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Jan. 2025
  • Although the towering inflorescence withers after a few days, the same plant survives underground and can bloom again in future years.
    — ABC News, 15 Apr. 2026
  • The 3-inch-long inflorescence is composed of rows of golden tepals from which emerge red styles that resemble butterfly antennae.
    — Earl Nickel, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Oct. 2017
  • The structures that look like mushrooms are instead inflorescences, or a cluster of flowers intricately arranged on a stem.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 21 Sep. 2023
  • These may have colorful foliage or attractive and long-lasting inflorescences.
    — Tom MacCubbin, The Orlando Sentinel, 29 Mar. 2025
  • Roadside weeds like wild mustard and Queen Anne’s lace, tendrils of palm inflorescence and carnivorous cobra lilies have all found a place in her work.
    — New York Times, 18 Nov. 2020
  • Gradually, the inflorescence shatters and the plant produces new foliage.
    — Tom MacCubbin, orlandosentinel.com, 28 Aug. 2021
  • Male sagos produce a yellowish, upright, often several feet tall inflorescence that deteriorates and drops off the plant in a matter of months.
    — Tom MacCubbin, orlandosentinel.com, 28 Aug. 2021
  • Also, that center actually contains hundreds of smaller flowers that combine to create a cluster called an inflorescence.
    — Claire Harmeyer, Better Homes & Gardens, 2 July 2020
  • Native to Sumatran rainforests, the endangered and unpredictable species produces the world's largest unbranched inflorescence.
    — Houston Chronicle, 26 Apr. 2018
  • What appears to be a single bloom is actually an enormous inflorescence, a cluster of many tiny flowers at the base of a tall central column called the spadix and surrounded by a deep purple, velvety spathe.
    — ABC News, 15 Apr. 2026
  • The inflorescence reaches 12 to 18 inches long, bearing colorful flowers with white lavender petals and orange sepals.
    — Karen Dardick, sandiegouniontribune.com, 17 May 2018
  • Native to the steep hillsides of tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, the corpse flower is the largest unbranched inflorescence - many tiny flowers acting as one - in the plant kingdom.
    — Kassia Bonesteel, CBS News, 25 June 2026
  • Curiosity was high for the pungent plant, which grew a reputation for being the world’s largest flower (although that’s not entirely true — the corpse flower is actually the largest unbranched inflorescence).
    — Cari Spencer, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2023
  • In black fonio, the inflorescence (cluster of flowers on a stem) is composed of 4–10 digitate racemes (branches that radiate from a single point, resembling fingers on a hand) with spikelets in threes.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Mar. 2026
  • The stalk, which can reach 20 feet tall, is topped by a giant, candelabra-like inflorescence with numerous flower clusters bearing countless small, bright yellow blooms that produce large quantities of sweet nectar at night.
    — Janet Marinelli, Wired, 19 Feb. 2022
  • Phelps was thoroughly scientific about education — her botany text explains inflorescence, the classification of trillium, and the theory of metamorphoses of the organs of plants — but nature also inspired her.
    — Washington Post, 27 Dec. 2021
  • Like modern growers, Sumerian orchardists, archaeologist Marcin Paszke contends, gathered pollen from the emerging inflorescences of male date palms in the spring and then climbed the female trees to fertilize the flowers by hand.
    — Jacob Jones, JSTOR Daily, 13 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inflorescence.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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