Year of the Petalune was an ancient Bajoran term for a time period in Bajor's calendar. By the time of the Third Republic of Bajor in the 24th century, its name and meaning had been lost. In September 2385, just after Doctor Altek Dans had appeared on Deep Space 9 from the Bajoran wormhole, he explained to Captain Ro Laren that he was from the seventeenth Year of the Petalune. When Ro said she didn't know what a Petalune was, Altek informed her that as well as being the name of all the years in a cycle, it was also the name of a constellation and a flower. (DS9 novel: Sacraments of Fire)