bract
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Bougainvillea in Mexico. The flowers are small, and surrounded by large brightly coloured bracts.
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The decorative poinsettia, native to Mexico and South America, was named after its discoverer J.R. Poinsett (1779–1853), a US politician. Its bracts are more commonly scarlet in colour, but there are also pink, cream, and bi-coloured varieties.
Leaflike structure in whose axil a flower or inflorescence develops. Bracts are generally green and smaller than the true leaves. However, in some plants they may be brightly coloured and conspicuous, taking over the role of attracting pollinating insects to the flowers, whose own petals are small; examples include poinsettia Euphorbia pulcherrima and bougainvillea.
A whorl of bracts surrounding an inflorescence is termed an involucre. A bracteole is a leaflike organ that arises on an individual flower stalk, between the true bract and the calyx.
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