The significant difference between grasses and trees are structures for someone who doesn’t know much about botany. Botanists have been trying to nail down the specific traits of significant types of flowering plants that can distinguish them from one another.
It has been a difficult task to differentiate this consistently from one group of plants to another group. However, it is essential to know that the seeds of monocots, dicots, and eudicots have some positive defining characteristics.
A History behind these classes
John Ray (1628-1705), an English naturalist, published in his book Methodus Plantarum Nova in 1682 about the very first information of flowering plants into monocots and dicots. At that time, this classification has been widely adapted despite there was uncertainty in applying the terms in some species.
Everyone was aware that these results are not confirmed. Furthermore, based on the overwhelming effects of phylogenetic studies, the classification of monocots was also modified.
Sylvia S. Mader, in her book Biology, divided the angiosperms into the monocotyledons and dicotyledons. This division is wholly based on the number of cotyledons in seeds. However, in a laboratory manual published 2007, in her sole authorship, there is no mention anymore of dicots.
The angiosperms are subdivided into two major groups that are the monocots and eudicots. The term eudicots are also called tricolpates, which means true dicots. This category includes the plants that were traditionally described as dicots.
What is Monocot?
The monocot or monocotyledon is known as the plant that comprises of a common ancestor and all its descendants. Monocots are also called as Monocotyledoneae or Liliopsida that are flowering plants under the phylum Anthophyta. This classification belongs to the kingdom Plantae. However, they include the grasses that can be considered as one of the major families of plants.
Examples of Monocots
Grains such as wheat, corn, rice, and millet are monocots. Moreover, sugarcane, palm, ginger, daffodils, banana, onions, cone, palm tree, banana tree, bamboo, and grass are also monocots.
What is Eudicot?
Eudicotyledon or Eudicot is known as the largest flowering plant group. It is surprising to know that about 75% of angiosperms are Eudicots that make up the majority of the Pineywoods flora. Eudicots are vascular plants that produce seeds. These seeds are enclosed in fruits that are in 2’s, 4’s or 5’s or multiples of 4 or 5. Furthermore, pollen grains also have three or more than three openings.
Examples of Eudicots
The rose family provides a variety of fruits like apples, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, cherries, and plum. These families also belong to horticulture plants. Tomatoes and potatoes are also included in this category.
Why are Dicots now called eudicots?
The significant differences between monocots and dicots are not always apparent. The reason behind this is, a particular plant in one group may have some characteristics that are usually typical of plants in the other group. It is essential to know that many planta share standard pollen structure that differs from that of monocots or the minority of dicots. However, the large subgroup of dicots is called as eudicots. The pollen structure of plants makes it Eudicot. However, the seeds differ from those of monocots as same as dicots.
Main characteristics of monocots and dicots
Both monocots and dicots are different because of several features. Here are some of the major ones. Let’s check them out:
| Monocots | Eudicots |
|---|---|
| All species have seeds with one cotyledon | All species have seeds with two cotyledons |
| Leaf venation is mostly parallel | Leaf venation is mostly netlike or reticulate |
| Fibrous root system | Typically taproot system |
| Parts of flowers are usually in threes or multiples of three | Parts of flowers are generally in fours or fives or multiples of four or five |
| Monocots are herbaceous, never woody | Eudicots can be Woody or herbaceous |
| The pollen grain has one furrow or aperture | The pollen grain has three grooves or apertures |
| Vascular bundles of monocots in stem are scattered | Vascular bundles of eudicots in stem arranged in a ring |
| Vascular tissue in the root are arranged in a ring | Root xylem are star-shaped and the phloem tissues are arms of the star |
| 22% of all angiosperms | 75% of all angiosperms |
| 56,000 species of angiosperms | 190,000 species of angiosperms |
Are Eudicot and dicot the same?
Most of the dicots share a typical pollen structure that is different from that of monocots and a minority of dicots. However, this large subgroup of dicots is known as eudicots. It is essential to understand that plant’s pollen structure makes it a eudicot, but the seeds of the plant are different from monocots. We cannot say that dicots and eudicots are the same things.
Are Magnoliids Dicots?
Magnoliids consisted of two cotyledons and were initially placed with the dicots. However, if we talk about the DNA studies, it says that magnoliids are not the same as eudicots. The main reason behind this is, monocots have one cotyledon and floral parts in multiples of three and parallel venation in leaves. Magnolia flowers have six petals.
Is mango a dicot or monocot?
Mango seed is dicot that means they have two cotyledons in the seed of the plant.
Is a cherry a Eudicot?
As horticulture plants are eudicots, so cherries also belongs to eudicots.
