Monocot vs. Dicot

Monocots are flowering plants having seeds with a single cotyledon or embryonic leaf. There are as many as 60,000 plant species found worldwide. The orchids (Family: Orchidaceae) and the grasses (Family: Poaceae) form the largest and the second most abundant group, respectively. All monocots share a common evolutionary history, thus are a monophyletic group.

Dicots are flowering plants having seeds with two cotyledons or embryonic leaves. They are the largest group within angiosperms consisting of about 200,000 species. Unlike monocots, dicots are not plants arising from a single ancestor but have evolved from different lineages. Thus dicots are paraphyletic.

What Is the Difference between Monocot and Dicot

Monocots and dicots differ in four distinct structural features: seeds, leaves, stems, roots, and flowers.

However, the difference starts from the very beginning of their life cycle in the form of a seed. Within the seed lies the embryo or the baby plant. At the start of their life cycle, the difference in their embryo leads each plant to develop vast differences.

The key differences between them are presented below in tabular form.

Basis	Monocots	Dicots
1. Examples	Palms, grasses, orchids such as tulips, corn, wheat, barley, and sugarcane	Green peas, almonds, sunflower, rose, apples, and grapes
2. Embryo	Has one cotyledonForms a single leaf that grows as a long and narrow structure at the time of germination	Has two cotyledonsForms two seeds that develop into different shapes
3. Vascular System	Bundles of vascular tissue are scattered throughout the stem with no particular arrangementHas no cortex	Bundles of vascular tissue are arranged in the form of a ring.Divided into a cortex and stele
4. Leaf Venation	Parallel	Reticulated (branched)
5. Types of Leaves	Isobilateral	Dorsiventral
6. Stomata in Leaves	Mostly found on both the upper and the lower surface (amphistomatous)Arranged in highly ordered rows	Some are found only on one surface (epistomatous) Arranged haphazardly
7. Bulliform Cells	Present	Absent
8. Flowers	Petals are formed in multiples of three In some plants, calyx and corolla are undifferentiated	Petals are formed in multiples of four or five Calyx and corolla are differentiated
9. Stem	Mostly herbaceous, but some have arboraceous stemsUnbranched and fleshy Vascular bundles are scattered in no fixed patternMostly lack a lateral meristem or cambiumCambium, when present, is not differentiated into cortex or stellar regionsEpidermal hairs are absent	Either herbaceous or arboraceous stemsBranched and hardVascular bundles are arranged in concentric circlesContains a lateral meristem or cambium Cambium is differentiated into the stellar regions and cortex Epidermal hairs are present
10. Secondary Growth	Do not exhibit secondary growth due to the absence of cambium	Secondary growth occurs due to the presence of cambium
11. Root System	Has an adventitious or fibrous root system	Mostly has a tap root system. Some dicots have an adventitious root system
12. Secondary Growth	Mostly present	Absent
13. Seed Germination	Hypogeal	Hypogeal or epigeal
14. Endosperm	Always present and is usually large	May not be present and is mostly small
15. Fruit	Trilocular	Pentalocular
16. Pollen	Contain a single furrow or pore	Contents three furrows or pores
17. Mode of Pollination	By wind	By insects or animals

Similarities

• Angiosperms or flowering plants
• Vascular plants using xylem and phloem to move water and nutrients throughout the plant
• Have stamens with four (two pairs) of pollen sacs, and the carpel is closed.
• Male gametophyte is made of three cells, and female gametophyte consists of seven cells with eight nuclei.