A large tree stand tall in a yard, its canopy over a lawn. The tree is covered in pink and white flowers.

White bracts with deep pink tips sit at the ends of thin branches. Sunlight shines through the "flowers", giving them a warm glow.

Dogwood "flowers" are clustered at the end of a few branches, white bracts with deep pink edging. A hillside covered in pine trees can be seen in the distance beneath blue skies.

A dogwood "flower" is seen with two of its bracts flat and two of its bracts curving up, giving it the appearance of a ballerina in a tutu.

This dogwood in our backyard is absolutely dreamy 😍🌸 #dogwood #cornus #bracts #bloom #flower

#Bracts teach care over beauty.

#7syllablesentence #blueskypoets #nature

the bract caresses the bud
#7syllablesentence #bracts

@vignettes.bsky.social

A close-up of a vibrant cluster of bright pink flowers, likely bougainvillea, with green leaves interspersed among them. The flowers have small white centers and are in sharp focus against a blurred background of green foliage, additional pink and yellow floral elements, and a clear blue sky. No text is present in the image. Provided by @altbot, generated privately and locally using Qwen3-Vl:30b

Flowering Now: Bougainvillea

welchwrite.com/agn/2026/01/...

Follow My Photos on Pixelfed: pixelfed.social/p/douglaswel...

#Bougainvillea #flowers #bracts #pink #plants #garden #gardening #nature #outdoors

The Bougainvilleas on our balcony haven't realized yet that it's already November

The Bougainvilleas on our balcony haven't realized yet that it's already November

#bougainvillea #plants #bracts #flowers #photography

A view of a Sunflower's (Helianthus annuus) big, hairy bracts, shot last Sunday.
#Wildflowers #Bracts #Sunflowers

Here's a nice Teasel
#photography #teasel #flower #NaturePhotography #nature #plant #PhotoOfTheDay #Dipsacus #SeedHead #spiky #cone #bracts #WildFlowers

Plants, inflorescences, flowers, fruits, pollinators, and nectar robbers of Thunia alba.

Compare the proportion of the robbed flowers between the intact treatment and the removed bract treatment. P-values are given.

Compare the visiting behavior of Bombus breviceps between the intact treatment and the removed bract treatment.

【EDITOR'S CHOICE】
The conspicuously large #Bracts influence #ReproductiveSuccess in #ThuniaAlba (Orchidaceae)

#Pollinator | #NectarRobbery | #BombusBreviceps

doi.org/10.1093/jpe/...

A close-up of a dogwood bloom and it’s bracts, it is a light green color, almost white, with green in the very center

A local dogwood bloom

#MacroMonday #Flowers #Bracts #Bloomscrolling #Edmonds #PNW #Photography

Here's a nice Teasel head
#photography #teasel #seedhead #plant #nature #patterns #spirals #flower #seeds #Dipsacus #spikes #bracts #PhotoOfTheDay

Photo of a dogwood inflorescence. The cluster of tiny yellow flowers is surrounded by four pink bracts. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

I’ll close bract week with Cornus florida, the state flower of North Carolina. This is a lovely pink cultivar. I don’t suppose anyone tried to explain to the NC legislators that each “flower” is a cluster of little flowers surrounded by 4 colorful modified leaves. #Cornaceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo portrait of the inflorescence of a thistle. The narrow, subtending bracts have spiky margins and spiny tips. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Floral bracts can also be defensive! Bracts below the inflorescences in Asteraceae (given their own name: phyllaries) may defend against fruit/seed predators. Nobody messes with Silybum marianum (📷: Jon Sullivan CCBYNC2) & its spiky bracts. #Asteraceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of leafy shoots bearing terminal inflorescences that look like large tufts of yellow hairs among which white flowers emerge. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

But back to floral bracts, the bracts subtending flowers or inflorescences. They can be attractive, adding to the floral display & drawing in more pollinators. Here’s Schaueria calytricha in the #Acanthaceae, another family known for its showy bracts. #Acanthaceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of a leafless twig with a terminal bud and emerging leaves. The bud has several, brown, triangular protective scales that open to release the emerging leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Many temperate plants were described as “perulate” meaning that the overwintering buds are covered by bud scales (nowadays rarely called perulae). You can see the brown bud scales here on this shoot of Hydrangea quercifolia. They are just modified leaves. #Hydrangeaceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy shoot bearing leaves. The full-size leaves are interrupted by a series of short, needle-like cataphylls that indicate a growth period in which cataphylls, not leaves, were produced. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Modified leaves that subtend vegetative structures have other names, but they’re still bracts in the broad sense. Between pulses of leafy growth, Clavija domingensis produces tiny, needle-shaped cataphylls, which are reduced leaves. #Primulaceae Bromeliaceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Bracts that are small when they subtend the flower can become enlarged (accrescent) in fruit. The fleshy, dark-staining tissue that surrounds black walnuts is comprised of accrescent bracts. This is Juglans nigra. #Juglandaceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of an agave with smooth-margined leaves producing a central stalk (inflorescence). The stalk is covered by greenish bracts with tapered and elongated tips. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Close-up photo of the bracts, which have distinctive, long, whip-like apices. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Bracts are modified leaves, so they aren’t the same shape/size as leaves but can still be photosynthetic. The bracts of Agave bracteosa (so named because it is so bract-y) subtend the flowers on the inflorescence. They have long-extended (caudate) tips. #Asparagaceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of the inflorescence. Three, large, showy, magenta bracts surround three small, white, rotate flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Let’s dive into bracts, which are modified leaves. Modified how? So many modifications!
We’re all familiar with the bracts of Bougainvillea spectabilis (#Nyctaginaceae), which are colorful & attract pollinators to the otherwise insignificant flowers. #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

look up

#pinecone #macrophotography #nature #pine #naturelovers #inthewoods #pineconelove #pineconesfordays #pineconeart #conifercone #scales #bracts #pineneedles #pine #tree #branch

Aggressively Spikey

#pinecone #macrophotography #nature #pine #naturelovers #inthewoods #pineconelove #pineconesfordays #pineconeart #conifercone #scales #bracts #pineneedles #pine #tree #branch

A pink bromeliad in bloom. The bract looks like a big pink flower, the leaves are variegated shades of green.

Pink bromeliad in bloom. 🌸🩷

#flowers #bracts #bromeliad #plants #gardening #flower #bract #california #garden #pink

Film photograph of a bee collecting nectar from the small clustered flowers of a thorny desert plant (Euphorbia). Taken with Kentmere Pan 100 film using a Pentax MX camera with an SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/4 macro lens, developed in XTOL.

Busy Day

Pentax MX
SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/4 macro lens
Kentmere Pan 100 film
XTOL 1:1
flic.kr/p/2qNw4P6

#FilmPhotography #Photography 🎞️ 📷 #BelieveInFilm #FilmIsNotDead #Euphorbia #Bracts #Bee #Kentmere #Pentax #XTOL #Monochrome #BlackAndWhite

The tips of four leucadendron branches are little yellow, pink, and violet starbursts.

#Bloomscrolling #bracts #leucadendron 🌱from the garden in the backyard this afternoon.

From underneath

#pinecone #macrophotography #nature #pine #naturelovers #inthewoods #pineconelove #pineconesfordays #pineconeart #conifercone #scales #bracts #pineneedles #pine #tree #branch

In the pines

#pinecone #macrophotography #nature #pine #naturelovers #inthewoods #pineconelove #pineconesfordays #pineconeart #conifercone #scales #bracts #pineneedles #pine #branches