what is dicotyledon

Dicotyledon, also known as dicots, is a group of flowering plants or angiosperms that have two embryonic leaves or cotyledons in the seed. This group of plants is one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants were formerly divided, the other being monocotyledons or monocots. There are around 200,000 species within this group. Most common garden plants, shrubs, trees, and broad-leafed flowering plants such as magnolias, roses, geraniums, and hollyhocks are dicots. Dicots typically have flower parts based on a plan of four or five, or multiples thereof, although there are exceptions. The leaves of dicots are net-veined in most, which means the vessels that conduct water and food show a mesh-like pattern. In the stems, the vessels are usually arranged in a continuous ring near the stem surface. About 50 percent of all dicot species are woody. The dicots are not a monophyletic group, and the eudicots are the largest monophyletic group within the dicotyledons.