| A typical palm flower is small, with 3 imbricate sepals, 3 valvate petals, six stamens or staminodes, and 3 uniovulate carpels or a trifid pistillode. |
| The staminodes and the adjacent carpels in ABFs form a continuous ring and are inserted on a single whorl. |
| The cocoa flower has five free sepals, five free petals, five staminodes, five stamens and an ovary of five united carpels. |
| Fully hardy and into flower around mid April, the nodding, long, 3 in petals are snow white with yellow-tipped white staminodes. |
| The staminodes range from diminute and filiform to very well developed with the appearance of sterile anthers, in some cases containing few pollen grains. |
| In abnormal male flowers, stamens develop as carpelloid structures, whilst in abnormal female flowers, the staminodes develop as pseudocarpel structures. |
