glume

Definition

A basal, membranous, outer sterile husk or bract in the flowers of grasses (Poaceae) and sedges (Cyperaceae).

Etymology

From Latin gluma (“husk of grain”). The root can also be seen in glubere (“to peel”).

Example Sentences

• "[T]he glume in some alpine grasses, and the scales of the ament in the salix rosea, rose-willow, grow into leaves; and produce other kinds of monsters."