Definitions

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

  • noun A bract, usually one of two, at the base of a grass spikelet.
  • noun A bract in a sedge spikelet, usually subtending a floret.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A chaffy bract or bractlet characterizing the inflorescence of grasses, sedges, and other Glumaceæ.

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

  • noun (Bot.) The bracteal covering of the flowers or seeds of grain and grasses; esp., an outer husk or bract of a spikelet.

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

  • noun botany a basal, membranous, outer sterile husk or bract in the flowers of grasses (Poaceae) and sedges (Cyperaceae)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small dry membranous bract found in inflorescences of Gramineae and Cyperaceae

Etymologies

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

[Latin glūma, husk; see gleubh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The term comes from the Latin gluma, meaning "husk of grain". It can also be seen in the French verb, glubere meaning "to peel".

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word glume.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.