also: うてな
Botanical term for the outer whorl of a flower, consisting of sepals. Used in scientific and educational contexts.
The calyx is the outermost part of a flower and serves to protect the bud.
The calyx of this plant is green and smaller than the petals.
Standard kanji spelling for the botanical term 'calyx'.
Rare reading; mainly found in classical or poetic contexts.
The kanji 萼 is a phono-semantic compound: the 艹 (grass) radical indicates a plant part, and 咢 (gaku) gives the sound. The reading がく is the on'yomi; うてな is a rare native Japanese reading.