Definitions

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

  • adjective Resembling a petal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In botany, having the form of a petal; resembling petals in texture and color, as certain bracts.
  • In zoology, resembling a leaf or petal; specifically, noting those heterogeneous ambulacra of some echinoderms, as of the Clypeastroida, of which the apical part is wide in the middle and tapers to a point at the margin, where it joins the oral portion. See cuts under ambulacrum, cake-urchin, and petalostichous.
  • Having the general form of a leaf.

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

  • adjective (Bot.) Petaline.

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

  • adjective botany Resembling the petal of a flower

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

  • adjective resembling a flower petal

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

petal + -oid

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Examples

  • This species is apparently prone to developmental errors so that the labellum can be petaloid or (as in this case) all the petals develop the labellum (lip) characteristics.

    The Panda's Thumb: August 2009 Archives 2009

  • This species is apparently prone to developmental errors so that the labellum can be petaloid or (as in this case) all the petals develop the labellum (lip) characteristics.

    Calochilus robertsonii - The Panda's Thumb 2009

  • This species is apparently prone to developmental errors so that the labellum can be petaloid or (as in this case) all the petals develop the labellum (lip) characteristics.

    Photo Contest Vote: Vegetable - The Panda's Thumb 2009

  • There are many cases where a single pollinator is responsible for pollinating many species of plants, for example long-tongued flies (Tabanidae and Nemestrinidae) are the exclusive pollinators of many genera of petaloid monocots as well as Pelargonium and Erica; a butterfly is the exclusive pollinator of a phylogenetically disparate group of red-flowered and autumn-flowering species; hopliine (monkey) beetle pollination has evolved convergently in many genera, etc.

    Lowland fynbos and renosterveld 2008

  • Pollination of petaloid geophytes by monkey beetles (Scarabaenidae: Rutelinae: Hopliini) in southern Africa.

    Succulent Karoo 2008

  • Geophyte diversity is particularly high; the lowland and montane ecoregion support about 1,500 species, most belonging to the petaloid monoct families, notably Iridaceae, Orchidaceae, Hyacinthaceae, and Amaryllidaceae.

    Lowland fynbos and renosterveld 2008

  • Geophyte diversity is remarkably high; the lowland and montane fynbos ecoregions support about 1,500 species, most belonging to the petaloid monocot families, notably Iridaceae, Orchidaceae, Hyacinthaceae, and Amaryllidaceae.

    Montane fynbos and renosterveld 2008

  • Most of the 630 species of geophytes are petaloid monocots in the families Hyacinthaceae (Lachenalia, Ornithogalum), Iridaceae (Babiana, Lapeirousia, Moraea, Romulea), Amaryllidaceae (Brunsvigia, Hessea, Strumaria) and Asphodelaceae (Bulbine, Trachyandra).

    Succulent Karoo 2008

  • Other distinctive features in comparison with other Mediterranean-climate floras include the large number of geophytes or bulblike plants (1,552 spp.), especially among the petaloid monocots, and the relative paucity of annuals (6.8 percent of the flora) and trees (2.4 percent).

    Lowland fynbos and renosterveld 2008

  • But here it might be argued, on the other hand, that the spheroidal Echinoids, in reality, depart further from the general plan and from the embryonic form than the elongated Spatangoids do; and that the peculiar dental apparatus and the pedicellariae of the former are marks of at least as great differentiation as the petaloid ambulacra and semitae of the latter.

    Essays 2007

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