Spike

Spike, in Botany, that kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers, or flowers having very short stalks, are arranged around an axis, as in the greater plantain, common vervain, common lavender, and some species of sedge. In rye, wheat, barley, darnel, and many other grasses there is a sort of compound spike—i.e. the flowers or fruits are arranged together in spikelets upon short stalks, which again surround the top of the culm in the form of a spike. The catkin, the spadix, and the cone may be regarded as varieties of the spike.