- a simple pistil, or a single member of a compound pistil.
Origin of carpel
Examples from the Web for carpel
Historical Examples of carpel
Mericarp, one carpel of the fruit of an Umbelliferous plant, 121.
Carpel, or Carpidium, a simple pistil or a pistil-leaf, 106.
Hemicarp, half-fruit, one carpel of an Umbelliferous plant, 121.
Carpel, kr′pel, n. a modified leaf forming the whole or part of the pistil of a flower.
Roeper has also mentioned a balsam with a supernumerary stamen occupying exactly the position of a carpel.Vegetable Teratology
Maxwell T. Masters
- the female reproductive organ of flowering plants, consisting of an ovary, style (sometimes absent), and stigma. The carpels are separate or fused to form a single pistil
Word Origin for carpel
1835, from Modern Latin carpellum (1817 in French), a diminutive form from Greek karpos "fruit" (also "returns, profit"), literally "that which is plucked," from PIE root *kerp- "to gather, pluck, harvest" (see harvest (n.)).
- One of the individual female reproductive organs in a flower. A carpel is composed of an ovary, a style, and a stigma, although some flowers have carpels without a distinct style. In origin, carpels are leaves (megasporophylls) that have evolved to enclose the ovules. The term pistil is sometimes used to refer to a single carpel or to several carpels fused together. See more at flower.