Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms, are classified as dicot or monocot depending on the nature of the embryo in the seed. There are around two hundred and fifty thousand species of flowering plants in the world including trees, herbs and shrubs. Fascinatingly, all of them can be classified as dicot or monocot.
Definitions of Dicot and Monocot
Dicot or dicotyledonae is a flowering plant that has two cotyledons in its seeds. These plants are called dicotyledonous plants. Monocot or monocotyledonae is a flowering plant that has one cotyledon in its seeds. These plants are called monocotyledonous plants. Some examples of dicotyledonous plants are mango, sunflower and neem. Some examples of monocotyledonous plants are maize, grass, wheat and sugarcane.
Difference Between Dicot and Monocot
The primary difference between dicot and monocot is obviously the number of cotyledons. Beyond the cotyledons in the seeds, there are many physical or characteristic differences between the two.
Monocots or monocotyledonous plants usually have parallel veins, complex vascular bundles, a fibrous root system and floral parts or flowers are usually in multiples of three. In contrast, dicots or dicotyledonous plants have netlike veins, vascular bundles often form a ring like structure, they tend to have tap roots and floral parts or flowers tend to be in multiples of four and five.
Monocots usually have pollens with single pore or furrow. Dicots have pollens with three pores or furrows. The stem vascular bundles of monocots may be scattered and might not have a pattern. The leaf veins of dicotyledonous plants may be reticulated. Monocots would almost always develop an adventitious root system and have hollow stems while dicots will have roots developing from a radicle and have solid stems. Flowers in monocots are usually incomplete. Dicots have complete flowers. Monocots don’t have any cambium and secondary growth is almost unheard of. Dicots would almost always have secondary growth. Even seed germination varies between the two. Monocotyledonous plants have hypogeal seed germination while dicots may have epigeal or hypogeal seed germination.
While it may seem unobvious and rather improbable to identify monocots and dicots from looking at flowering plants, their pollens, flowers, fruits or just the structure, yet it is quite obvious for those in the know. Everything from the structure of the stem to the pattern and growth of the leaves, the structure of the roots to the texture of the fruits indicate if the seeds have one cotyledon or two cotyledons.
