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How to Determine Whether Fruiting Plants Are Monocots or Dicots

Flowering plants are divided into two main groups, which are the dicots, or magnoliopsida, and the monocots, or liliopsida. Though the clear difference between the two groups is often taken for granted, there are actually a variety of cases of plants blurring the lines between the two. There are, however, some basic rules for identifying which group a plant belongs to, that will work in most cases.

Things You'll Need

Knife

Instructions

- 1
  Count the number of petals, stamens or other parts of the floral design of the plant. The number of petals will tend to be divisible by three in monocots, and divisible by four or five in dicots.
- 2
  Look at the leaf veins on the plant. Monocot plants typically have a number of leaf veins that run parallel to the length of the leaf. Dicot plants typically have many different auxiliary veins, which transfer nutrients between the major veins.
- 3
  Cut off the stem of the plant and examine the vascular arrangement. In dicots, the vascular tissue is arranged in a circular array, and will appear as a circular series of dots spaced around the stem. In monocots, however, the vascular tissue will appear as a fairly random series of dots, with more located toward the periphery than the center.

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