noun. A small or secondary spike, characteristic of grasses and sedges, bearing one or more florets and usually subtended by one or two bracts.

noun. In botany, a small or secondary spike: more especially applied to the spiked arrangements of two or more flowers of grasses, subtended by one or more glumes, and variously disposed around a common axis. See cuts under Meliceæ, oat, orchardgrass, Poa, reed, rye, and Sorghum.

noun. A small or secondary spike; especially, one of the ultimate parts of the in florescence of grasses. See Illust. of quaking grass.

noun. A small, or secondary spike, especially one of many in the inflorescence of a grass or sedge

noun. a small sharp-pointed tip resembling a spike on a stem or leaf

"The _spikelets_ are linear-oblong, glabrous or villous, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, sessile and stalked spikelets close together; the pedicel of the stalked spikelet is thick about 1/3 or less than the length of the sessile spikelet, ciliate on one side, confluent with the thick callus of the sessile spikelet, which is sparsely bristly."

aculeus  

glochid  glochidium  

quaking grass