Chaff
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- For the radar countermeasure, see Chaff (radar countermeasure).
Image:Rice chaffs.jpg Chaff is cereal grain seed casings (hull or husk); in botany called bracts or glumes. It is harvested with cereal grains such as rice and wheat and separated from the grain before use, by such techniques as threshing and wind winnowing.
It is used for animal feed.
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[edit] Botany
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, from the axil of which a flower or flower stalk arises; or a bract may be any leaf associated with an inflorescence. In grasses (Poaceae), the bracts that enclose the florets are termed glumes. They are sterile bracts found below the flowers in a spikelet, the basic unit of a grass inflorescence. Spikelets typically have two basal glumes, with one or more florets above. However, one or, more rarely, both glumes may be lacking in some taxa.<ref> Grass Structures</ref>
[edit] Other meanings
The word "chaff" is also used to refer to something worthless, such as in the expression "separating the wheat from the chaff", meaning to find things of value and separate them from things of no value.
Hay or straw cut into very short lengths is called chaff. The cutting is often done by a specially designed machine called a chaff cutter and fed to horses or cattle.
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