bract
1
9.9
- noun
- /brækt/
- Specialized
:
bráctea
- Bracts that are tightly shut in the immature fig (stage A) loosen when it becomes receptive (stage B), allowing wasp pollinators to enter.
- flower bracts
- purple bracts
- green bracts
Examples
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Petal-like bracts surrounding the pendulous bud gradually drop away to reveal clusters of blossoms.
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In spring, white bracts would flutter like feathers.
Fiction book (2000) -
-Now, all you gotta do is pinch the bract right here, so you don't get your fingertips...
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Or they were showered by the red bracts of poinsettias that grew as tall as trees.
Fiction book (2002) -
And so, on an autumn day when the wind shuttled through the garden, rattling bracts, pods, and dead leaves.
Fiction book (1997) -
Differences among the species, though hard for the untutored eye to discern, are evident in the green bracts on the flowers' undersides.
Academic text (2002) -
It has a false stem that's actually fused bracts.
Fiction book (1994) -
Where it was caught in the upper foliage, the morning light looked pale green, but it became muddied as it glanced off the showy purple bracts of the bougainvillea vines.
Fiction book (1997) -
The brightly colored bracts of this rampant vine are as much a trademark of the tropics as palms.
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The small flowers are surrounded by colorful bracts and leaves that turn a dark red in fall.
Synonyms
A small leaf below a flower in a group of flowers
A small leaf-like part on the stalk just below a flower
How Leaflike
Surface Forms
Etymology
Bract comes from the old Latin word bractea, which meant 'a thin metal plate' or 'metal leaf'. So a bract is like a 'leaf' or 'plate' that sits just below and can protect or decorate a flower or a group of flowers.