involucre Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a highly conspicuous bract or bract pair or ring of bracts at the base of an inflorescence

L. involucrum a covering, wrapper, fr. involvere to wrap up, envelop: cf. F. involucre. See Involve.

(Bot.) (a) A whorl or set of bracts around a flower, umbel, or head. (b) A continuous marginal covering of sporangia, in certain ferns, as in the common brake, or the cup-shaped processes of the filmy ferns. (c) The peridium or volva of certain fungi. Called also involucrum.