Knowra Cupule Cupule A cup-shaped structure formed from bracts that surrounds or supports a fruit. In oaks and related plants, it partly encloses the nut and remains attached to the fruiting stalk.
Bract : A modified leaf associated with a flower or inflorescence, often protecting or supporting reproductive structures. Cupules develop from bracts that grow around or beneath a fruit.
Acorn : The nut and seed of an oak, partly enclosed by a scaly or warty cup. Its cup is the best-known example of a cupule.
Floral development : The sequence of growth and differentiation through which a flower forms its organs and reproductive structures. Cupule-forming bracts develop around reproductive organs as the fruit begins to mature.
Fagaceae : The beech family of flowering plants, including oaks, beeches, chestnuts, and their relatives. Cupules are characteristic fruit-associated structures across this family.
Inflorescence : A cluster of flowers arranged on a plant stem or branch. Cupules form in the floral structures that later bear fruits.
Hazelnut : The edible nut of a hazel, borne in a leafy husk formed from bracts. Its husk is a cupule that can extend beyond the nut.
Ovary (botany) : The basal part of a flower's carpel that contains ovules and commonly develops into a fruit. The ovary becomes the fruit supported or enclosed by a cupule.
Nut (fruit) : A dry, usually one-seeded fruit with a hard wall that does not split open at maturity. Many cupules surround nuts, but the cupule is separate from the nut's fruit wall.
Flower : The reproductive structure of flowering plants, containing organs that produce gametes and develop into fruits and seeds. A cupule originates in floral tissues surrounding the developing fruit.
Beech nut : The small, edible nut of a beech tree, enclosed in a prickly cup that splits into valves. Its spiny cupule opens to release the nuts.
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