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

Derived Forms

• involucrate
  adjective
• involucral
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of involucre

1570–80; < Middle French < Latin involūcrum involucrum

Example Sentences

Stipules often present.—A vast family in the warmer parts of the world; most numerously represented in northern countries by the genus Euphorbia, which has very reduced flowers within a calyx-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 Gray, Asa

Scales of the cylindrical involucre 8, erect, in one row.

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

Sterile flowers numerous and lining the base of the involucre, each from the axil of a little bract, and consisting merely of a single stamen jointed on a pedicel like the filament; anther-cells globular, separate.

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

Heads many-flowered; rays pistillate, or none; involucre cylindrical to bell-shaped, simple or with a few bractlets at the base, the scales erect-connivent.

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 broad and flattish involucre imbricated in several rows, thickish, broad and with loose leaf-like summits, except the innermost, which resemble the linear chaff of the flat receptacle.

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