Spike (botany)

“ So when fruits are thoroughly ripened, they become, with respect to the parent plant, dead substances, and, however strongly attached before, are then thrown off as extraneous bodies. Their stalks fade or wither, though the life of the adjoining branch continues unimpaired, and a line of separation is soon drawn. In a poor soil, or unfavourable climate, a bunch or spike which should naturally consist of a considerable number of flowers, bears perhaps not half so many. ”

“ Low and diffuse, 3–10 ́ high, forming mats; leaves abundant, very green, flat and firm, longer than the weak culms; staminate spike very small, with the uppermost pistillate spike sessile at its base; pistillate spikes 2–4 on each culm, scattered and long-peduncled from green sheaths, erect or spreading, many other spikes nearly or quite radical and very long-stalked, all 3–8-flowered; perigynium triangular-obovate, smooth or very slightly pubescent above, the short and nearly entire beak somewhat oblique ”

“ Fig. 214.—Lateral Racemes (in fruit) of Barberry.
A very short and dense spike is a head. Clover (Fig. 216) is a good example. The sunflower and related plants bear many small flowers in a very dense and often flat head. Note that in the sunflower (Fig. 189) the outside or exterior flowers [158] open first. Another special form of spike is the catkin, which usually has scaly bracts, the whole cluster being deciduous after flowering or fruiting, and the flowers (in typical cases) having only stamens or pistils. ”

“ The rhizome is creeping, sympodial (with two internodes in each shoot-generation) ; the inflorescence is a terminal, many-flowered spike, without floral-leaves; below it are found 2 foliage-leaves placed nearly at the same height, from whose axils the branching is continued cymosely. The flowers are ☿, 4-merous, naked, and consist only of 4 stamens, with the connectives, broadly developed at the back of the anthers, resembling a perianth, and of 4 free, sessile carpels. They are common plants in fresh water. The spike, during the flowering, is raised above the water. ”

“ Rather weak, 1° high or less; leaves flat and firm, persisting through the winter, at least twice longer than the culm; a sheathing purple scale at the base of the spike; staminate spike about 1 ́ long, clavate in anthesis, the purple scales ending in a very short and blunt whitish tip; pistillate spike narrower and mostly longer, the scales more abruptly contracted into a colored cusp and at length deciduous; perigynium obovate, much contracted below into a stipe-like base, very strongly nerved, entirely pointless, hairy above, covered by the scale. ”

“ They have hollow stems, with partitions at the nodes; the leaves consist only of a whorl of scales at each node, these coalescent into a sheath: from the axils of these leaf-scales, in many species, branches grow out, which are similar to the stem but on a much smaller scale, close-jointed, and with the tips of the leaves more apparent. At the apex of the stem appears the fructification, as it is called for lack of a better term, in the form of a short spike or head. This consists of a good number of stalked shields, bearing on their inner or under face several wedge-shaped spore-cases. ”

“ It is just what a spike would become if its axis were shortened; or an umbel, if its pedicels were all shortened until the flowers became sessile. The head of the Button-bush is naked; but that of the Thistle, of the Dandelion, and the like, is surrounded by empty bracts, which form an Involucre. Two particular forms of the spike and the head have received particular names, namely, the Spadix and the Catkin.
Fig. 205. Head of the Button-bush (Cephalanthus) . ”

“ A foot high or less, erect, strongly stoloniferous, forming large patches; leaves narrow and more or less involute, dark or dull green, mostly nearly as long as the culm; staminate spike 1⁄2 ́ (rarely 3⁄4 ́) long, usually dull brown or brown-purple, sessile or very nearly so; pistillate spikes 1–3, contiguous or the two lower rarely 1⁄2 ́ apart, all sessile and usually dark-colored, the lowest bract very short or at least rarely prominent; perigynium short- or round-ovate, hairy.—Dry fields; our commonest species. ”

“ A cluster is most generally drooping or pendulous, and the flowers are all expanded nearly at the same time.
A compound racemus occurs in Solanum Dulcamara, t., and an aggregate one, several being gathered together, in Actæa racemosa, Dill. Elth. t. 67; but the example of a bunch of Grapes, quoted by Linnæus for a racemus, appears to me a true thyrsus; see below.
Spica, a Spike, bears numerous flowers ranged along one common stalk, without any partial stalks, as in Satyrium hircinum, Engl. Bot. ”

“ The upper flowers on the spike have no seed-vessel, and they fall off as soon as their stamen dust is scattered. The spike may bear thirty or forty flowers, yet only a few will remain to produce seeds after the beautiful petals are withered. ”

“ The familiar brown spike is a dense mass of minute one-seeded fruits, each on a long hair-like stalk and covered with long downy hairs, which render the fruits very light and readily carried by the wind. ”

“ Inasmuch as some of the American spikenard's tiny flowers are staminate and some pistillate, while others again are perfect, they depend upon flies chiefly - but on some wasps and beetles, too - to transfer pollen and enable the fertile ones to set seed. ”

“ The morphology of the fertile spike is a disputed question, upon the answer to which the systematic position of the Ophioglossaceae largely rests. The spike is most simple in Ophioglossum, where it bears on each side a row of large sporangia, which hardly project from the surface, the vascular bundles occupying a central position. In the young spike, which arises when the leaf is still very small, a band of tissue derived from superficial cells is distinguishable along either side ”

“ We keep the sun from them as much as possible. They are potted in equal parts of peat and moss, with a small quantity of sharp sand, and plenty of crocks and charcoal as drainage. When making their growth they delight in an abundance of moisture at the roots. We find it necessary to sponge them weekly, as red spider, thrips and green fly are particularly fond of these plants. This year from three plants we have four spikes, which have opened twenty-three flowers; last year the same plants had one spike each, which gave us eighteen flowers in all.”—B. S. W.
PL. 140. CYMBIDIUM AFFINE. ”

“ Spike′-fish, a kind of sail-fish; Spike′-grass, one of several American grasses with conspicuous spikelets of flowers; Spike′let, a little spike; Spike′-nail, a spike; Spike′-oil, the oil of spike, a species of lavender; Spike′-plank, a platform before the mizzen-mast of a vessel, used in Arctic voyages.—adj. Spī′ky, furnished with spikes: having a sharp point. [L. spica, an ear of corn.]
Spikenard, spīk′närd, n. an aromatic oil or balsam yielded by an Indian plant, the Nardus, closely allied to valerian: the plant itself. [L. spica nardi.] ”

“ Not easily mistaken for any other grass. As some of the spikelets are shortly stalked, the inflorescence is strictly paniculate, but the fact is not obvious. The glume-like bract at the base of the spike, and the general appearance suggest resem109blances to certain moor-sedges at first sight. The only other grasses with similarly shaped spikes are species of Alopecurus, Phleum, and the rare Lagurus, Polypogon, Phalaris, Panicum, all with very different spikelets and easily distinguished. ”

“ Virgin forest lands, with a soil covered with a layer of leaf mold or rotten wood, is well adapted to the cultivation of the plant, and a hot, moist climate is requisite. Plenty of shade is necessary to protect the trees from the prevailing winds which would scatter the flowers and uproot the trees, as the roots take but a slender hold in the ground. Large trees should not be allowed to grow with spice trees, as they would exclude the vivifying rays of the sun and arrest the fall of the night dews, which are necessary for quantity as well as quality of the nutmegs. ”

“ Spikelets 1-flowered, not jointed on the pedicels. Outer glumes unequal, often bristle-pointed; the flowering glume tipped with three awns; the palet much smaller. Otherwise much as in Stipa.—Culms branching; leaves narrow, often involute. Spikelets in simple or panicled racemes or spikes. Grain linear. All grow in sterile, dry soil, and all ours have the awns naked and persistent, and flower late. (Name from arista, a beard or awn.)
[*] Awns separate to the base, not jointed with the glume. ”

“ The creature stretches and contracts its body with an astonishing rapidity, and at each movement forces the skin upwards, until it has reached the spot from which it is suspended. At the hinder, or what is now the upper, end of the body, there has been formed beneath the skin a black little spike, crowned at the extremity with a number of little hooks by which it is to fasten itself to the silken knob from which it is hanging. ”

“ Spikelet terete, hardly if at all thicker than the spongy-cellular culm; scales firmly persistent; style mostly 3-cleft; bristles 6 (rarely 7) , firm or rigid, mostly barbed downward, equalling or surpassing the triangular or lenticular achene.
[*] Spikelet linear or lanceolate-awl-shaped, few-flowered; scales (only 3–9) few-ranked, convolute-clasping the long flattened joints of the axis, lanceolate, herbaceous (green) and several-nerved on the back, and with thin scarious margins. ”

“ Similar exuberant growths occur in Orchidaceæ, in Cyperaceæ, e.g. Carex, in Restiaceæ, and indeed they may be found in any plant with a similar form of inflorescence. In all these cases the branching begins at the lower part of the spike, and extends from below upwards in an indefinite manner, even although the primary inflorescence be definite.
Among the Equisetaceæ a similar plurality of spikes occurs often as a result of mutilation. [387] The deviation in question might in some instances be turned to good account, as in the Triticum before mentioned or as in the broccoli shown at fig. ”

“ The double forms are not only less vigorous, but the means of propagation are limited; offsets of only healthy stock should be taken in early summer. A rich retentive loam suits them, or moist vegetable soil would do: shade, however, is the great desideratum; exposure to full sunshine harms them, even if well moistened at the roots; besides, in such positions red spider is sure to attack them. This mode of propagation is applicable to desirable single varieties, as they cannot be relied upon to produce stock true to themselves from seed. ”

“ The best course of procedure is to sow seed thinly in February or March in pots or pans of fine soil placed on a gentle hot-bed or in a house where the temperature is maintained at about 55°. Pot on the young plants as they develop and keep them growing without a check. Spray twice daily, for Capsicums require atmospheric moisture and the Red Spider is partial to the plant. Nice specimens may be grown in pots five to eight inches in diameter, beyond which it is not desirable to go, and as the summer advances these may be taken to the conservatory. ”

“ If the pupils have not understood the cause of the flower-cluster scars, show them their position in shoots where they are plainly on the summit of the stem, and tell them to compare this with the arrangement of a large bud. The flower-cluster terminates the axis in the bud, and this scar terminates a branch. When the terminal bud is thus prevented from continuing its growth, the nearest axillary buds are developed. [1] One shoot usually gets the start, and becomes so much stronger that it throws the other to one side. ”

“ The only grass likely to be confounded is Agropyrum, in which the spikelets are not paired. Lolium, Brachypodium, &c. are easily distinguished.
(ii) Spike short and ovoid: spikelets sub-sessile and imbricate, in clusters. ”

“ When far enough advanced, the flower spike starts up through the middle of the foliage and makes its appearance above the upper leaf. From the time the spike comes in sight, the plant seems to devote the most of its energy to developing the flowers, and the seed which follows. ”

“ A spike bearing female flowers only, and covered with scales, is a strobilus, as in the hop. In grasses there are usually numerous sessile flowers arranged in small spikes, called locustae or spikelets, which are either set closely along a central axis, or produced on secondary axes formed by the branching of the central one ”

“ In botany, an indehiscent pericarp or seed-vessel, pulpy, many-celled, and many-seeded, the seeds being naked, and for a time connected by a slender membrane, from which they become detached at maturity, and then remain dispersed through the pulp. ”

“ From this we may go on to other pistils in which several carpels are completely fused together. Next, the compact body thus formed may be sunk down in the expanded top of the stem (the receptacle) . Or the other parts of the flower—sepals, petals, stamens—may in their lower part be fused with the walls of the pistil, and may thus appear to spring from the top of it. In such cases the structure of the flower may easily be wrongly interpreted, and reference to a work on systematic botany is necessary if pitfalls are to be avoided. ”

“ The panicle is spike-like, with short branches. The spikelets are one-flowered. The outer glumes are four in number, one flowering glume, a pale, but no lodicules. In the Linnæan system plants were classified according to the number of their stamens and pistils, and the artificiality of it was strikingly shown when this plant had to be widely separated from all other grasses, because it was one stamen short, though agreeing with them in all other essentials. The species is abundant in most meadows, and were it absent one of the charms of the hay harvest would be gone also ”