In botanical terminology, a phyllary, also known an involucral bract or tegule, is a single

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

of the involucre of a composite flower. The involucre is the grouping of bracts together. Phyllaries are reduced leaf-like structures that form one or more whorls immediately below a flower head.

Function

Phyllaries provide protection to developing flowers and fruits. In the dandelion hybrid ''Taraxacum japonicum'' × ''officinale'', recurved phyllaries help defend the flowers from herbivory by slugs. They sometimes assist in the dispersal of fruits. The hooked phyllaries of burdock species ('' Arctium'') cling to the fur and feathers of animals, dispersing the seeds away from the parent plant ( exozoochory).

Structure and arrangement

Phyllary morphology is useful in plant identification as between species of the

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

family, they may vary in number, shape, width, length, hairiness, presence of glands, or texture.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , last1=Clark , first1=Patterson , title=Burdock: Sowing seeds with fur and bur , url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/urban-jungle/pages/121120.html?noredirect=on , newspaper=The Washington Post , access-date=26 May 2019 , language=en {{cite journal , last1=Hawthorn , first1=Wayne R. , last2=Hayne , first2=P. D. , title=Seed production and predispersal seed predation in the biennial composite species, ''Arctium minus'' (Hill) Bernh. and ''A. lappa'' L. , journal=Oecologia , date=1 January 1978 , volume=34 , issue=3 , pages=283–295 , doi=10.1007/BF00344907 , pmid=28309875 , bibcode=1978Oecol..34..283H , s2cid=6102531 , language=en , issn=1432-1939 {{cite web , title=Jepson Herbarium: Jepson Flora Project: Jepson eFlora: Glossary , url=http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/glossary.html , website=ucjeps.berkeley.edu , access-date=26 May 2019 {{cite web , title=Glossary of botanical terms for Compositae , url=http://www.kew.org/science/tropamerica/boliviacompositae/glossary.html , website=www.kew.org , access-date=26 May 2019 {{cite web , last1=Reznicek , first1=A.A. , last2=Voss , first2=E.G. , last3=Walters , first3=B.S. , title=Asteraceae , url=https://michiganflora.net/family.aspx?id=ASTERACEAE , website=michiganflora.net , publisher=Michigan Flora , access-date=26 May 2019 {{Cite web, url=http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/glossary/glossary-list/?TerTerm=phyllary, title=NYGB Steele Herbarium Glossary, access-date=May 23, 2019 {{cite journal , last1=Wu , first1=Fu-Yu , last2=Yahara , first2=Tetsukazu , title=Recurved Taraxacum phyllaries function as a floral defense: experimental evidence and its implication for Taraxacum evolutionary history , journal=Ecological Research , date=1 May 2017 , volume=32 , issue=3 , pages=313–329 , doi=10.1007/s11284-017-1444-5 , bibcode=2017EcoR...32..313W , s2cid=46343283 , language=en , issn=1440-1703 Plant morphology Flowers