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Monocotyledons or monocots are a group of flowering plants usually ranked as a class and once called the Monocotyledoneae. This taxonomic grouping is now named Liliopsida after the type genus, Lilium. Flowering plants not included in the Liliopsida are dicotyledonsee text Dicotyledons or dicots are flowering plants whose seed contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons . Flowering plants or angiosperms that are not dicotyledonous are monocotyledonous: having one embryonic leaf. See How to distinguish a monocot fros or dicots. These two broad groups are distinguished by the number of cotyledonFor the genus of Crassulaceae, see Cotyledon''. A cotyledon is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant. Upon germination, the cotyledon usually becomes the embryonic first leaves of a seedling. The number of cotyledons present is one cs, or embryonic leaves, in their seedThis writeup is about biological seeds; for the Buddhist metaphor, see bija. A seed is the ripened ovule of gymnosperm or angiosperm plants. The importance of the seed relative to more primitive forms of reproduction and dispersal is attested to by the sus: dicots have two, and monocots have one.
The monocots are considered to form a monophyleticIn phylogenetics, a group is monophyletic (greek: of one stem) if all organisms in that group are known to have developed from a common ancestral form, and all descendants of that form are included in the group. Taxonomic groups that contain organisms but group which evolved from an early dicot. The earliest fossils presumed to be monocot remains date from the early CretaceousThe Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic period (about 135 mya) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary period (65 mya). The end of the Cretaceous also defines the period. The largest modern monocot family is the OrchidaceaeOrchid re-directs here; for alternate uses see Orchid (disambiguation About 1000 See List of Orchidaceae genera. Orchids Orchidaceae family) are among the most diverse of the flowering plant families, with over 1000 described genera and 25,000 (some sourc (orchids), plants which have specialized in insectSubclass Apterygota Symphypleona globular springtails Subclass Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) Subclass Dicondylia Monura extinct Thysanura (common bristletails) Subclass Pterygota Palaeodictyoptera extinct Ephemeroptera (mayflies) Odonata ( dragonfl pollinationPollination is an important step in the reproduction of seed plants: the transfer of pollen grains (male gametes) to the plant carpel, the structure that contains the ovule (female gamete). The receptive part of the carpel is called a stigma in the flower. For this reason many species of orchids produce very complex flower structures. The second largest and perhaps more notable family, the Poaceae (true grasses), have evolved in another direction, becoming highly specialized for wind pollination. Grasses produce small, generally inconspicuous flowers.
In addition to having but one embryonic cotyledon, the monocots are set apart within the flowering plants by a number of other specializations. See how to distinguish a monocot from a dicot.
