[ noun ] part of the perianth that is usually brightly colored <noun.plant>
Petal \Pet"al\, n. [Gr. ? a leaf, a leaf or plate of metal, fr. ? outspread, broad, flat: cf. F. p['e]tale. See {Fathom}.] 1. (Bot.) One of the leaves of the corolla, or the colored leaves of a flower. See {Corolla}, and Illust. of {Flower}.
2. (Zo["o]l.) One of the expanded ambulacra which form a rosette on the black of certain Echini.
Then the first petal began to move and then another as the flower burst into life," she wrote in her diaries.