irregular flower

Scientific  

/ ĭ-rĕg′yə-lər /

1. A flower in which one or more members of a whorl, or of several floral whorls, differ in form from other members. Irregular flowers, such as those of the violet or the pea, are often bilaterally symmetric. The pea has one large upper petal above, two free petals on the each side, and two petals fused together in a keel shape below.

2. Compare regular flower

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Example Sentences

Papilionaceous, butterfly-like; applied to the peculiar irregular flower common in Leguminos�.

From Project Gutenberg

Peloria, an abnormal return to regularity and symmetry in an irregular flower; commonest in Snapdragon.

From Project Gutenberg

An irregular flower is generally distinguished by petals of unequal size or shape.

From Project Gutenberg

Nevertheless, there is no decisive evidence either in his figure or his description in support of his opinion as to the nature of the central mass, which might be a distorted condition of the styles, or, as is more probable, a rudimentary and irregular flower.

From Project Gutenberg

In cases where an habitually irregular flower becomes regular, the change in form is frequently associated with an alteration in direction both of the flower as a whole and, to a greater or less extent, of its individual members, for instance of Gloxinia, the normal flowers of which are irregular and pendent, there is now in common cultivation a peloriate race in which the flowers are regular in form and erect in position.

From Project Gutenberg