Umbel
An umbel is another kind of flat-topped cluster of flowers. It is an inflorescence without an obvious central axis. A branch is terminated by a number of nodes separated by exceedingly short internodes so that apparently there is no axis at all within the inflorescence. The pedicels of many flowers appear to rise from the same point. Usually these pedicels are of the equal length. Often a ring of bracts (involucre) subtends the umbel. In a true umbel the buds are in the center (at the apex of the stem) and the flowers are intermediate and the fruits outside. An umbel is really a shortened raceme, that is, one with only a very short axis. The fundamentally lower flowers bloom first.
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