| Monocotyledons Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
   .jpg)    | |
| Diversity of monocots which includes wheat (Triticum), taro (Colocasia esculenta), date palm, (Phoenix dactylifera), Zostera marina, lily (Lilium), Pandanus heterocarpus, and ginger (Zingiber officinale) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Type genus | |
| Lilium | |
| Orders | |
| Synonyms | |
Monocotyledons (/ˌmɒnəˌkɒtəˈliːdənz/),[d][13][14] commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae sensu Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of the major groups into which the flowering plants have traditionally been divided; the rest of the flowering plants have two cotyledons and were classified as dicotyledons, or dicots.
Monocotyledons have almost always been recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks and under several different names. The APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called "monocots" but does not assign it to a taxonomic rank.
The monocotyledons include about 70,000 species, about a quarter of all angiosperms. The largest family in this group (and in the flowering plants as a whole) by number of species are the orchids (family Orchidaceae), with more than 20,000 species. About 12,000 species belong to the true grasses (Poaceae), which are economically the most important family of monocotyledons. Often mistaken for grasses, sedges are also monocots.
In agriculture the majority of the biomass produced comes from monocotyledons. These include not only major grains (rice, wheat, maize, etc.), but also forage grasses, sugar cane, the bamboos, and many other common food and decorative crops.
- ^ a b c d Cronquist, Takhtajan & Zimmermann 1966.
- ^ Bessey 1915.
- ^ de Candolle 1819.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Tropiclilianaewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Takhtajan 1966.
- ^ Takhtajan 1964.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Tropicliliidaewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Thorne 1992a.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Tropicliliowas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Eichler 1886.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Tropicmonowas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ de Candolle 1818–1821.
- ^ "monocotyledon". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
- ^ "monocotyledon". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
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