involucre

American  

[in-vuh-loo-ker] / ˈɪn vəˌlu kər /

noun

1. Botany. a collection or rosette of bracts subtending a flower cluster, umbel, or the like.

2. a covering, especially a membranous one.

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involucre British  

/ ˈɪnvəˌluːkə /

noun

1. a ring of bracts at the base of an inflorescence in such plants as the composites

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involucre Scientific  

/ ĭn′-və-lo̅o̅′kər /

1. A series of bracts beneath or around a flower or flower cluster. The cupule, the cuplike structure holding an oak acorn, is a modified, woody involucre.

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Other Word Forms

• involucral
  adjective
• involucrate
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of involucre

1570–80; < Middle French < Latin involūcrum involucrum

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

involucre

Leaves opposite 74 Scales of the involucre imbricated.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Umbels usually compound, in which case the secondary ones are termed umbellets; the whorl of bracts which often subtends the general umbel is the involucre, and those of the umbellets the involucels.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Rather tall; leaves long-lanceolate to lance-oblong; cyme open; involucre usually purplish; scales ovate and lance-ovate tipped with a slender cusp or awn.—Low grounds near the coast, Maine to Va., west to Minn., E. Kan., and southward.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Well distinguished by its long or drooping racemes, and the closely appressed rigid scales of the involucre, small rays, etc.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Flowers small, in open naked cymes, or in close heads surrounded by a corolla-like involucre.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

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