‖ dichasium Bot.
(daɪˈkeɪzɪəm)
Pl. -ia.
[mod.L., f. Gr. δίχασις division.]
A form of cymose inflorescence, apparently but not really dichotomous, in which the main axis produces a pair of lateral axes, each of which similarly produces a pair, and so on; a biparous cyme.
| 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 158 False dichotomies of this kind, which occur abundantly in the inflorescences of Phanerogams, are termed by Schimper Dichasia. Ibid. 521 The dichasium easily passes, in the first or a succeeding order of lateral axes, into a sympodial mode of development. 1876 J. H. Balfour in Encycl. Brit. IV. 124/1 In some members of the tribe Caryophyllaceæ the inflorescence has the form of a contracted dichasium. |