indusium

noun

(Lat. indusium: woman's shirt) (pl. indusia) The thin, scale-like, sometimes kidney-shaped tissue covering the immature sorus (fruit-cluster) of certain ferns that protects the developing sporangia; It withers when the sorus ripens to expose the sporangia. A collection of hairs enclosing the stigma of some flowers. The pollen-cup of Goodeniaceae.