A plural or collective term for plants or flowers that lack petals, representing a botanical classification.
From Latin 'a-' (without) + 'petalum' (petal, from Greek 'petalon' meaning leaf or plate). The Latin plural form '-ae' indicates this scientific botanical nomenclature from the 18th-19th century.
Many flowers we assume have petals actually don't—grasses, sedges, and some wind-pollinated plants shed their petals entirely, making them apetal botanically, even if they produce seeds just fine.
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