Thus, in many Caryophyllaceae, as Polycarpon and Holosteum, while the calyx and corolla are pentamerous, there are only three or four stamens and three carpels; in Impatiens Noli-me-tangere the calyx is composed of three parts, while the other verticils have five; in labiate flowers there are five parts of the calyx and corolla, and only four stamens; and in Tropaeolum pentaphyllum there are five sepals, two petals, eight stamens and three carpels.
The flowers are hermaphrodite and regular with parts in fives (pentamerous) throughout, though exceptions from the pentamerous arrangement occur.
The thecal plates, however irregular in some species, always show defined basals and a distinct plate ("radial") at the end of each ambulacrum; they are in all cases so far affected by pentamerous symmetry that their sutures never cross the ambulacra.
A flower in which the parts are arranged in twos is called dimerous; when the parts of the whorls are three, four or five, the flower is trimerous, tetramerous or pentamerous, respectively.
The symmetry which is most commonly met with is trimerous and pentamerous - the former occurring generally among monocotyledons, the latter among dicotyledons.
