Digynous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A flower or plant part having two distinct female reproductive organs or pistils
2. Characterized by the presence of two pistils or carpels in the floral structure
3. Bearing two female reproductive units or pistils within the flower

Etymology: "Digynous" is a botanical term describing a flower or plant with two styles (the slender stalks that connect the stigma to the ovary). It is built from "Digynia", the name of a botanical order, and the English suffix "-ous", which means "having" or "characterised by". The word is therefore a plain technical formation: the Greek roots behind "digynia" are "di-", meaning "two", and "gyne", meaning "woman" or, in botanical use, "female organ" or "pistil", so the literal sense is roughly "two pistils or styles." The "Digynia" element comes from Carl Linnaeus's sexual system of plant classification, in which the number of styles in a flower served as a grouping principle. Linnaeus used the Latin form of the ordinal names, so the English adjective inherited that structure: a flower that is "digynous" belongs to the class of plants with two styles. The same pattern gives related terms such as "monogynous" (one style) and "trigynous" (three styles).