bract

• bracte, bractea

From Latin bractea (“a thin plate of metal; gold leaf”).

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bract (plural bracts)

1. (botany) A leaf or leaf-like structure from the axil out of which a stalk of a flower or an inflorescence arises.
   • 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 9:

     In this vegetable monster the bractes, or divisions of the spike, become wonderfully enlarged; and are converted into leaves.

   • 1793, Thomas Martyn, The Language of Botany:

     A Verticil or Whirl may be […] Naked; that is without involucre, bracte or brittle. Bracted - or Involucred

   • 2017, Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole, Bloomsbury, published 2019, page 31:

     Great dense patches of them grew, four and five and six feet deep, impenetrable swathes of dark green bracts that advertised their danger.