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, ˌɪnvəˈluːkrəm /

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

Etymology

Origin of involucre

1570–80; < Middle French < Latin involūcrum involucrum

Example Sentences

Fertile flower solitary in the middle of the involucre, soon protruded on a long pedicel, consisting of a 3-lobed and 3-celled ovary with no calyx, or a mere vestige.

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 Gray, Asa

Glabrous, leafy, 2–5° high; leaves oblong, sinuate-pinnatifid and spinulosely dentate, ciliate; heads in an open panicle; involucre more imbricate; flowers yellow.—Minn.,

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 Gray, Asa

Flowers greenish, in a head or close cluster, surrounded by a large and showy, 4-leaved, corolla-like, white or rarely pinkish involucre; fruit bright red.

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 Gray, Asa

Flowers perfect, involucrate; involucre 4–8-toothed or lobed, usually many-flowered; the more or less exserted pedicels intermixed with narrow scarious bracts.

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 Gray, Asa

Scales of the bell-shaped involucre ovate or lanceolate, pointed, loosely imbricated in 2 or 3 rows.

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 Gray, Asa