carpel

Etymology

1835, borrowed from French carpelle, from New Latin carpellum, a diminutive of Ancient Greek κᾰρπός (karpós, “fruit”), from Proto-Indo-European *kerp- (“to pluck, harvest”).

noun

1. (botany) A constituent part of a flower pistil - the individual female reproductive organs in a flower. A carpel is composed of an ovary, a style, and a stigma, although some flowers have carpels without a distinct style. In origin, carpels are leaves (megasporophylls) that have evolved to enclose the ovules. A pistil may be composed of a single carpel or of several carpels fused together.