Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The upper of the two bracts that enclose each floret in a grass spikelet.
  • noun A small bract at the base of a disc floret in some plants of the composite family.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In annelids, a flattened seta, as in Sabellaria.
  • noun In botany:
  • noun One of the chaff-like bracts or scales subtending the individual flowers in the heads of many Compositæ chaff.
  • noun The scales on the stems of certain ferns.
  • noun The scale-like, usually membranaceous organ in the flowers of grasses which is situated upon a secondary axis in the axil of the flowering glume and envelops the stamens and pistil. It is always bicarinate and is usually bidentate. Also called palet.
  • noun In ornithology, a fleshy pendulous skin of the chin or throat, as the dewlap or wattle of the turkey.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The interior chaff or husk of grasses.
  • noun One of the chaffy scales or bractlets growing on the receptacle of many compound flowers, as the Coreopsis, the sunflower, etc.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A pendulous process of the skin on the throat of a bird, as in the turkey; a dewlap.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany The interior chaff or husk of grasses.
  • noun botany One of the chaffy scales or bractlets growing on the receptacle of many compound flowers, such as the sunflower.
  • noun zoology A pendulous process of the skin on the throat of a bird, as in the turkey; a dewlap.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, chaff.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin, chaff.

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Examples

  • The _third glume_ is broadly oblong, subacute or obtuse, 1-nerved, glabrous, with a palea as long as the glume; the _palea_ is 2-nerved, oblong and truncate at the apex.

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses K. Rangachari

  • The fourth _glume_ is white, coriaceous, smooth and shining, oblong, acute, shortly and broadly stipitate, with the margins folded inwards exposing only a third of the palea; _palea_ is similar to the glume in texture and marking.

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses K. Rangachari

  • The _fourth glume_ is ovate-lanceolate and abruptly narrowed above the middle, 5-nerved and paleate, palea is shorter than the glume but broader, 2-nerved and acute.

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses K. Rangachari

  • _flowering glumes_ are ovate, obtuse, as long as the second glume or slightly longer, sub-chartaceous, glabrous, three-nerved; palea is shorter than the glume, curved obovate oblong and persistent on the rachilla.

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses K. Rangachari

  • The third glume is very narrow, cylindric, coriaceous, convolute, acuminate, 3-nerved, tip produced into a long 3-partite, naked or hairy awn twisted below the branches, with a minute palea which is convolute round the ovary.

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses K. Rangachari

  • + Paucapalea, perhaps the first disciple of Gratian, whence, it is said, the name "palea" given to the additions to the "Decretum"

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • The florets are enclosed by other specialized bracts (the lemma and palea).

    Grasses 2009

  • Eustathii l. 3. aspectus amorem incendit, ut marcescentem in palea ignem ventus; ardebam interea majore concepto incendio.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Jacet granum opressum palea, justus caesus pravorum framea.

    12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 John 2003

  • The _fourth glume_ is narrow, truncate, 3-nerved, paleate; the _palea_ is truncate and wrapped round the ovary.

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses K. Rangachari

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