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Definition of "tetramerous" [te•tram•er•ous]

  • Having or consisting of four similar parts. (adjective)
  • Botany Having flower parts, such as sepals, petals, and stamens, in sets of four, as in the evening primrose. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "tetramerous" in a sentence
  • "= -- An increased number of stamens frequently accompanies the corresponding alterations in other whorls, and seems, if anything, to be more frequent among monocotyledonous plants than among dicotyledonous ones; thus, we occasionally find tetramerous flowers in _Crocus_, _Hyacinthus_, _Tulipa_, _Iris_,"
  • "Thus trimerous fuchsias and tetramerous jasmines may frequently be met with, and Turpin describes a tetramerous flower of _Cobæa scandens_."
  • "It is so common to observe on the same plant, flowers indifferently tetramerous, pentamerous, &c., that I need not give examples; but as numerical variations are comparatively rare when the parts are few, I may mention that, according to De Candolle, the flowers of Papaver bracteatum offer either two sepals with four petals (which is the common type with poppies), or three sepals with six petals."