didynamous

[dahy-din-uh-muhs]

adjective

1. (of a flower) having four stamens in two pairs of different length.

didynamous

/ daɪˈdɪnəməs /

adjective

1. (of plants) having four stamens arranged in two pairs of unequal length, as in the foxglove

Other Word Forms

• didynamy noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of didynamous¹

1785–95; < New Latin Didynam ( ia ) name of the class (equivalent to di- di- ¹ + Greek dýnam ( is ) power ( dynamic ) + -ia -ia ) + -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of didynamous¹

C18: from New Latin Didynamia name of former class, from _di- ¹ + Greek dunamis power, referring to the greater strength of the two long stamens

Example Sentences

Chiefly herbs, with square stems, opposite aromatic leaves, more or less 2-lipped corolla, didynamous or diandrous stamens, and a deeply 4-lobed ovary, which forms in fruit 4 little seed-like nutlets or achenes, surrounding the base of the single style in the bottom of the persistent calyx, each filled with a single erect seed.—Nutlets smooth or barely roughish and fixed by their base, except in the first tribe.

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Corolla tubular, obviously 2-lipped; the upper lip narrow, erect or arched, enclosing the 4 usually strongly didynamous stamens.

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Woody plants, monopetalous, didynamous or diandrous, with the ovary commonly 2-celled by the meeting of the two parietal placentæ or of a projection from them, many-ovuled; fruit a dry capsule, the large flat winged seeds with a flat embryo and no albumen, the broad and leaf-like cotyledons notched at both ends.—Calyx 2-lipped, 5-cleft, or entire.

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Fertile stamens 4 and didynamous, or 2.

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Stamens 2 or 4, not approaching in pairs nor strongly didynamous; anthers 2-celled.

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