Topic summary
Sepals
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Sepal.
Description
Sepals are usually green. The term tepal is usually applied when the parts of the perianth are difficult to distinguish, e.g. the petals and sepals share the same color or the petals are absent and the sepals are colorful. When the undifferentiated tepals resemble petals, they are referred to as "petaloid", as in petaloid monocots, orders of monocots with brightly colored tepals. Since they include Liliales, an alternative name is lilioid monocots. Examples of plants in which the term tepal is appropriate include genera such as Aloe and Tulipa. In contrast, genera such as Rosa and Phaseolus have well-distinguished sepals and petals.