sepal

English

The flower at the left has freshly opened and its petals obscure its sepals. The flower in the centre is more mature, and some of the sepals are visible behind the damaged petals. On the right are older flowers that have dropped their petals, revealing the sepals surrounding the developing fruit.

Etymology

From French sépale, from New Latin sepalum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛp(ə)l/, /ˈsiːp(ə)l/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -iːpəl

Noun

sepal (plural sepals)

1. (botany) One of the component parts of the calyx, particularly when such components are not fused into a single structure.
   • 1836, The Family Magazine, Or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge, Volume III, Redfield & Lindsay, page 367,

     When the sepals are distinct, or separate from each other, the calyx is said to be polysepalous.

   • 2009, Shubhrata R. Mishra, Understanding Plant Reproduction, Discovery Publishing House, page 164,

     The sepal and the petal are essentially leaf-like in form and anatomy but generally simpler in detailed structure than a foliage leaf.

   • 2017, Taylor A. Steeves, Vipen K. Sawhney, Essentials of Developmental Plant Anatomy, Oxford University Press, page 29,

     In tomato, for example, the first sepal primordium is formed as an outgrowth at the periphery of the apex and the subsequent sepal primordia are initiated in a helical fashion at an angle of approximately 137° from the previous one.

Derived terms

• polysepalous
• sepalous

Related terms

• petal
• sepalar
• tepal

Translations

part of calyx

• Arabic: سَبَلَة f (sabala), كَأْسِيَّة f (kaʔsiyya)
• Bulgarian: чашели́стче n (čašelístče)
• Catalan: sèpal (ca) m
• Dutch: kelkblad (nl) n, sepaal m, sepalum n
• Finnish: verholehti (fi)
• French: sépale (fr) m
• German: Kelchblatt (de) n, Sepalum n
• Icelandic: bikarblað n
• Ido: sepalo (io)
• Italian: sepalo (it) m
• Japanese: 萼がく片へん (がくへん, gakuhen)
• Kurdish:

  Southern Kurdish: پەپریک (peprîk)

• Maori: raukōpaki
• Polish: działka kielicha f
• Portuguese: sépala f
• Romanian: sepală (ro) f
• Russian: чашели́стик (ru) m (čašelístik)
• Spanish: sépalo (es) m
• Swedish: foderblad n, blomblad n
• Tagalog: tampok
• Turkish: çanak yaprak (tr)
• Ukrainian: чашолисто́к m (čašolystók)

Anagrams

• ALSEP, ELSPA, Lapes, Leaps, Pales, Peals, Slape, e-pals, lapse, leaps, lepas, pales, peals, pleas, salep, slape, spale

Estonian

Noun

sepal

1. adessive singular of sepp