Choripetalous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing a flower whose petals are free and unfused, each one standing apart from the others
2. Having a corolla made up of petals that do not join together at their bases or edges
3. Characterized by separate, unconnected petals rather than a single fused petal structure

Etymology: "Choripetalous" describes a flower whose petals are separate from one another, rather than fused into a tube or cup. Its building blocks are Ancient Greek "khōrís", meaning "separately" or "apart", and "petalous", the English adjective from "petal" (itself from Greek "pétalon", "leaf"), used to describe a flower with petals of a particular kind. Joined together, the pieces say exactly what the word means: separate-petaled. The word is a technical botanical coinage, built in the modern scientific style from classical parts rather than inherited from ancient usage. Ancient Greek writers had no need for such a term, since botanical description as a systematic discipline developed centuries later. Botanists used it alongside its opposite, "gamopetalous", where the petals are fused, so that the two terms form a neat contrasting pair in flower description.

Synonyms: polypetalous

Antonyms: gamopetalous, sympetalous