Heard spelling

parianth

Spelled perianth. an unstressed vowel

Why per and not par?

Greek peri means around. Latin par means equal. Different words, and only one of them is in this flower.

Parianth is the sort of slip that comes from hearing a word once and quickly. Peri is easier to hold on to when it sits in something familiar: perimeter, periscope, pericarp. In perianth it is doing the same job, marking what goes around the outside of something, here around the reproductive parts of the flower.

Say

PERR-ee-anth

Letters

P-E-R-I-A-N-T-H