Pappus

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This article is about a flower structure. For the Ancient Greek mathematician, see Pappus of Alexandria.

Pappus, in a composite flower, is the element of the individual disk and ray flowers that surrounds the flower structure, in the same manner at the base as calyx does in a non-compound flower. Pappuses may be like bristles, teeth or scales and are usually too diminutive to discern without some type of magnification device. The etymology of this term derives from the Ancient Greek word pappus meaning bristle.