What Is a Lipped Flower?

Mints

• The Latin word "labiatae" means "lipped" and describes the configuration of many flowers within the 180 genera that make up the family. Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans), a common garden flower, is one example. The flower spikes like those of many mints contain multiple small individual blossoms. Each flower features lipped petals joined at the base forming a tube. The upper lip is tiny if present at all. The lower lip is more prominent, with three lobes, including a large central one indented in the middle.

Figworts

• This family is made up of 210 genera and almost 3,000 distinct species. Many, but not all of the flowers have two lips. Common snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) are an example of a lipped species within the figwort family. The petals are fused into a wide tube at the base of each individual flower. This tube widens into a pouch culminating in two lipped petals, the upper being larger than the lower. Other Scrophulariaceae family members with lipped flowers include the mimulus or monkey flower, calceolaria, and foxglove or digitalis.

Orchids

• The enormous orchid family has many members with lipped flowers. The showy Cypripediums or slipper orchids, which include the familiar pink lady's slippers, have swollen lips forming the slipper of the orchid's common name. Phalaenopsis, widely known by its common name moth orchid, has one lipped petal that is often more brightly colored than the other petals. Cattleya orchids, sometimes used in floral arrangements, feature three-lobed lips.

Impatiens

• Common garden impatiens do not have a lipped flower structure, but many of their relatives in the balsam or Balsaminaceae family are lipped. An example is the moisture-loving native American wildflower known as jewelweed (Impatiens pallida). The yellow or orange flowers have five joined petals with a prominent lower lip. Impatiens tinctoria, native to the Himalayas, but sometimes grown as annual, resembles an orchid, with long, lipped petals.