(Edit: I’ve been told multiple times that not all of these are umbels, but you get the idea)

Hoya ‘Mathilde’ popping out tons of blooms. The plant turned 2 years old this month and decided to put on a show. The flowers are very perfumed; it’s a heavy scent but I like it.

Too bad I spotted a mealy.

Landscape Language

Umbel (noun) – a curved or flat-topped flower cluster where flower stalks arise from same point

Last week’s post featured a raceme type of flower, which has blooms arranged in a line along a stem. Another type of inflorescence (flower cluster) is called an umbel. An umbel has numerous stems that originate from the same point to form a flat or curved cluster of flowers, like an umbrella. Gray’s lovage (Ligusticum grayi) has compound umbel flowers: each inflorescence is made up of several umbels. Gray’s lovage is a common subalpine wildflower.