what is cotyledons

Cotyledons are the first leaves produced by plants, found within the embryo of a seed. They are responsible for supplying the nutrition a plant embryo needs to germinate and become established. Cotyledons are not considered true leaves and are sometimes referred to as "seed leaves" because they serve to access the stored nutrients in the seed, feeding the plant until the true leaves develop and begin photosynthesizing. In many plants, the cotyledons may then expand and function photosynthetically as normal leaves. They can be found in both monocots and dicots, with monocots having one cotyledon and dicots having two. The number of cotyledons is used to classify flowering plants into monocots and dicots