polysepalous
|pol-y-sep-a-lous|
🇺🇸
/ˌpɑːliˈsɛpələs/
🇬🇧
/ˌpɒlɪˈsɛpələs/
sepals free (not fused)
Etymology
'polysepalous' originates from Greek and New Latin elements: Greek 'polús' meaning 'many' combined with New Latin 'sepalum' (from which 'sepal-' is formed), where 'polús' meant 'many' and 'sepalum' referred to a sepal (a part of a flower).
'polysepalous' was formed in botanical Latin in the 19th century by combining the prefix 'poly-' with the Neo-Latin component 'sepalous' (from 'sepalum'), and it entered modern English botanical usage with this composite form.
Initially interpretable simply as 'having many sepals' (from its components), in specialized botanical usage it came to be used predominantly to indicate that the sepals are free (not fused) rather than united.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
in botany: having the sepals free from one another (not united or fused).
The corolla of that species is polysepalous, with each sepal distinct and separate.
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Adjective 2
(less common) having many sepals.
Some descriptions use polysepalous to emphasize the relatively large number of sepals on certain flowers.
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Last updated: 2025/12/15 06:23