Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The part of a flower outside the reproductive structures, usually consisting of the calyx and the corolla.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, the floral envelops, whether calyx or corolla or both.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The leaves of a flower generally, especially when the calyx and corolla are not readily distinguished.
  • noun A saclike involucre which incloses the young fruit in most hepatic mosses. See Illust. of hepatica.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany The sterile parts of a flower; collectively, the sepals and petals (or tepals).
  • noun botany The sterile, tubelike tissue that surrounds the female reproductive structure in a leafy liverwort.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun collective term for the outer parts of a flower consisting of the calyx and corolla and enclosing the stamens and pistils

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French périanthe, from New Latin perianthum : Greek peri-, peri- + Greek anthos, flower.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From peri- +‎ -anth, thus "around the flower.", from French périanthe, from New Latin perianthium.

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