Question

Prepare an album of monocot and dicot seeds

Answer 1

Flowering plants, also known as Angiosperms, are the most diverse group of land plants in the world, with at least 2,60,000 living species classified into 453 families. (The word Angiosperm finds its origin from two Greek words – ‘angio’ meaning covered and ‘sperma’ meaning seed.) Angiosperms are divided into two groups- monocots and dicots.

Monocot and dicot plants have specific characteristics. We identify plants by looking at their external characteristics such as seeds, roots, leaves, flowers, pollen, stems and vascular bundles. Based on the differences, they are placed in one of these two groups.

Comparison between Monocot and Dicot Plants

There are some specific characteristics that help us identify the plant as a monocot or a dicot. Let us look at them.

Seeds

Plant embryos in seeds have structures called cotyledons. A cotyledon is the central portion of a seed embryo to which the epicotyl (immature shoot) and radicle (immature root) are attached. The number of cotyledons differs in these two groups of plants and that forms the basis for the main classification of monocots and dicots. A seed of a monocot plant has one cotyledon and that of a dicot plants has two cotyledons. (Note: This is easy to remember when you know mono=one and di=two).

Roots

Roots can develop either from a main radicle that is one large taproot with many small secondary lateral roots growing out of it, or can be a fibrous mass of roots that arise from the nodes in the stem, called adventitious roots. Monocots have adventitious roots, whereas dicots have a radicle from which a root develops.