Cyme, umbel and corymb: there is poetry in botanical jargon. It describes, concisely, the functional architecture of inflorescences that are crowded together, and competing for pollinators, along this unmown length of road verge.
The Russian comfrey is attracting a constant stream of bumblebees. Some, with full pollen baskets, must have been foraging since sunrise but stop by on their way back to the nest for an energy top-up, from nectar hidden in its flowers. They are arranged in pairs along each inflorescence axis, which is curled like a scorpion’s tail, for this is a scorpioid cyme. Jewel-like purple buds elongate as it uncoils, to become dangling tubular corollas, at a rate of just two per day. Comfrey is parsimonious with its rewards, which can only be reached by long-tongued pollinators that struggle awkwardly, upside down, to reach the nectar.
Life is easier, a leisurely walk in the park, for the hoverflies, soldier beetles and a single wasp on the hogweed inflorescence nearby. It’s a compound umbel, a flat platform of clusters of small, white florets, supported by stems arranged like spokes of miniature umbrellas, each in turn supported by a spoke of a larger umbrella. Hoverflies land, unfold their tongues and wander over this floral plain, eating some pollen but dragging more over the receptive stigmas of the florets.
Arching overhead are flat, cream corymbs of elder blossom, some as large as tea plates, open tables for any passing insect. From below I can see that the florets have a different underpinning architecture. Each main supporting spoke rises from the same point but then sub-branches, each tipped with clusters of florets, become progressively shorter towards the top of the spoke. The result is another level floral playing field, another way of constructing an inflorescence and servicing insect visitors.
There is pleasure in dawdling along this lane, pulling flowers apart, trying to better understand how they work, how variation in the precise, programmed timing of events during their development produces such differing, exquisite outcomes, all ultimately serving the same purpose. While botanical jargon plays in my head: cyme, umbel, corymb; incantations of summer.
