palea
nounUK /ˈpælɪə/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin palea (“chaff”).
2
Biology, Botany, Natural sciences One of the chaffy scales or bractlets growing on the receptacle of many compound flowers, such as the sunflower.
- In a single Brazilian species, doubtfully referred to Brickellia, a few pales occur toward the edge of the disk.1917, Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, A Monograph of the Genus Brickellia:
- Derived terms
- paleaceous, paleal, paleate, paleola, paleous