Monocots and Dicots
All plants need sunlight, water, air, and some minerals from the soil. Under the right conditions plants produce seeds. The outside covering of the seed is called the seed coat. Look for the tiny plant inside the seed- this is called the embryo. If you use a hand lens you can see two small leaves.
The large part of the seed is called the cotyledon. It will supply food to the growing plant. A bean seed has two cotyledons, but a corn seed, which is a monocot, only has one cotyledon. In order to identify a monoct or dicot you have to look carefully at the leaves; if it has branching veins it is a dicot, but if it has parallel veins it is a monocot. Dicots also have flowers with four to five petals or multiples of those numbers, but a monocot flower has petals in multiples of three. There are about 200,000 species of dicots and 50,000 species of monocots.
All plants need sunlight, water, air, and some minerals from the soil. Under the right conditions plants produce seeds. The outside covering of the seed is called the seed coat. Look for the tiny plant inside the seed- this is called the embryo. If you use a hand lens you can see two small leaves.
The large part of the seed is called the cotyledon. It will supply food to the growing plant. A bean seed has two cotyledons, but a corn seed, which is a monocot, only has one cotyledon. In order to identify a monoct or dicot you have to look carefully at the leaves; if it has branching veins it is a dicot, but if it has parallel veins it is a monocot. Dicots also have flowers with four to five petals or multiples of those numbers, but a monocot flower has petals in multiples of three. There are about 200,000 species of dicots and 50,000 species of monocots.
NOW GO SEE WHICH PLANTS IN THE GARDEN ARE MONOCOTS OR DICOTS. REMEMBER TO LOOK AT THE FLOWER PETALS AND THEIR LEAVES. HAVE FUN!