pistillate

1 9.8

A flower that has only female parts and no male parts

adjective
/ˈpɪstɪleɪt/

Specialized

: pistilado

Only the pistillate flowers can develop into fruit after pollination.

Examples

The squash plant in our garden has both pistillate and staminate flowers.
The pistillate flowers attract more bees than the male ones.
Botanists examined the pistillate blossoms to study the plant’s reproductive patterns.
In our garden, we have several pistillate plants.
Only the pistillate flowers can develop into fruit after pollination.
The pistillate flowers attract more bees than the male ones.
Botanists examined the pistillate blossoms to study the plant’s reproductive patterns.

Synonyms

carpellate

vspistillate

Specialized

9.9

A flower that has the female parts that make seeds

specifies absence of stamens, indicating the flower is female only

Surface Forms

pistillate positive

Morphology

pistillate = pistil (transparent) = pistil + ate

Regular adjectival formation from 'pistil' + '-ate' meaning 'having pistils'; formation is direct though the term is specialised botanical vocabulary.

Etymology

The word pistillate comes from pistil, the name for the female part of a flower, and pistil comes from the Latin pistillum meaning 'pestle', a tool used for crushing. So, think of the pistil as a small pestle that gets pollen, and pistillate means 'female-flowered'.