Bot. [ad. L. culm-us stalk, stem (esp. of grain).] The stem of a plant; esp. the jointed and usually hollow stalk of grasses.
1657. Phys. Dict., Culms, stalks.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xiii. 139. Meadow Fescue … has a culm two feet high.
1854. Hooker, Himal. Jrnls., I. iii. 70. A kind of reed work formed of long culms of Saccharum.
Hence Culm v. intr., to form a culm; Culmed ppl. a., having a culm.
1860. Mayne Reid, in Chamb. Jrnl., XIV. 1. The young maize … is rapidly culming upward.
a. 1862. Thoreau, Excursions, Autumnal Tints (1863), 223. A very tall and slender-culmed grass.
