sepal

American  

[see-puhl] / ˈsi pəl /

noun

Botany.

1. one of the individual leaves or parts of the calyx of a flower.

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sepal British  

/ ˈsɛpəl, ˈsɛpələs /

noun

1. any of the separate parts of the calyx of a flower

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sepal Scientific  

/ sē′pəl /

1. One of the usually separate, green parts that surround and protect the flower bud and extend from the base of a flower after it has opened. Sepals tend to occur in the same number as the petals and to be centered over the petal divisions. In some species sepals are colored like petals, and they can even be indistinguishable from petals, as in the lilies (in what are called tepals). In some groups, such as the poppies, the sepals fall off after the flower bud opens.

2. See more at flower

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Other Word Forms

• sepaled adjective
• sepalled adjective

Etymology

Origin of sepal

< New Latin sepalum (1790), irregular coinage based on Greek sképē covering and Latin petalum petal

Example Sentences

By mutating genes that control polyploidy in the mustardlike plant Arabidopsis thaliana, she and her team discovered that if the sepal had too few polyploid cells, it was stiff and upright and blooming was impeded.

From Science Magazine • Aug. 23, 2023

Goethe recognized that all the parts of a flower, from pistil to sepal, are modified leaves.

From Nature • Aug. 5, 2019

Crispum Arthurianum.—A notable variety—very large, blush-white, with one enormous chocolate blot and two or three small spots on sepal and petal.

From The Woodlands Orchids by Boyle, Frederick

Here is Hebe, the product of rosea × Sanderiana, rosy white of sepal and petal, bright pink of lip, yellow at the base.

From The Woodlands Orchids by Boyle, Frederick

Like that above in petal and sepal, but paler.

From The Woodlands Orchids by Boyle, Frederick