Monocot & Dicot Flowers
There are over 400 families of angiosperms, or flowering plants. Of these, roughly 80 are considered to be monocots. The remainder are dicots. Monocots and dicots differ in the structures of their foliage, flowers and seeds. Both can be found among ornamental flowering plants as well as plants that produce edible fruits, nuts and seeds.
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Vascular Structure
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The stems of a monocot have vascular bundles that are randomly scattered throughout the structure. In a dicot, the vascular bundles are arranged in such a pattern that they look like spokes on a bicycle tire.
Leaves
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Most monocots have veins running parallel to the length of their leaves. For example, daffodils have long slender leaves where the parallel veins can clearly be seen. The veins of the dicot are found in a netted or webbed formation, such as in a rose leaf.
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Petals and Sepals
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In monocots, the petals and sepals will be found in multiples of three. Examples of this arrangement are the lily and the tulip. In dicots, there are usually four or five of each and sometimes multiples of either number. Some common dicot examples are the snapdragon and the geranium. The flowers produced on orange and lemon trees are also dicots.
Seeds
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Monocot seeds have a single cotyledon while dicot seeds have two. A cotyledon stores food to be used by the seedling when it starts to germinate. When the seeds germinate, the monocot will send up a single shoot and a dicot will send up two.
More Examples
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Additonal examples of monocots are palms, orchids, sweet potatoes, bananas and all grasses. The grass family is extensive, including most of our important grain crops such as wheat, rice and corn. Dicots also include buttercups, poppies, sunflowers and apple blossoms.
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References
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Swaminathan
Comments
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hi I'm jason I just want to say,, could you plss tell what are those 80 monocot flowers and the remaining dicots. thank you
