Describing a plant or flower that has separate, unfused carpels (female reproductive organs).
From Greek apo- (separate) + karpos (fruit) + -ous (adjectival suffix meaning 'having the quality of'). Standard botanical terminology.
Apocarpous flowers like buttercups and magnolias are considered more 'primitive' evolutionarily—they represent an earlier stage before plants developed the mechanical advantage of fused carpels, showing how floral diversity reflects evolutionary history.
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