Glume

{{Short description|One of two bracts enclosing a flower spikelet in grasses}}

{{Other uses}}

File:Urochloa mosambicensis spikelet12 annotated - Flickr - Macleay Grass Man.jpg, a grass]]

In botany, a glume is a bract (leaf-like structure) below a spikelet in the inflorescence (flower cluster) of grasses (Poaceae) or the flowers of sedges (Cyperaceae). There are two other types of bracts in the spikelets of grasses: the lemma and palea.

In grasses, two bracts known as "glumes" form the lowermost organs of a spikelet (there are usually two but one is sometimes reduced; or rarely, both are absent).{{cite book|last=Stace|first=C. A.|author-link= Stace, C. A.|year=2010|title=New Flora of the British Isles|edition=3|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location = Cambridge, U.K.| isbn=9780521707725|pages=974–77}} Glumes may be similar in form to the lemmas, the bracts at the base of each floret.

In sedges, by contrast, a glume is a scale at the base of each flower in a spikelet.{{cite book|first1=AC|last1=Jermy|first2=DA |last2=Simpson|first3=MJY|last3=Foley|first4=MS|last4=Porter|date=2007|title=Sedges of the British Isles|publisher=Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland|isbn=9780901158352|page=521}}