Tepals Petals Sepals

These are close up pictures of Hurricane Lily's tepals. Yup, tepals. It's not a typo error as I thought it was when researching this flower. The term that I am familiar with, petal, is apparently just one element of the outer side of a flower.

The outer side of a flower is called perianth. Perianth consist of petals (the inner perianth) and sepals (the outer perianth, usually lie under petals). In the case where petals and sepals are not able to be differentiated (they may be of similar shape, color, or position), they are called tepals. Voila.

For Hurricane Lily, petals and sepals are undifferentiated, thus tepals. Each flower has six curled up and undulating tepals with midrib.

Ribbon-like tepals of Hurricane Lily

Undulating tepals among

filaments and styles

© Burke's Garden, 2009