What are the characteristics of a monocot and dicot?

Answer 1

A monocot (short for 'monocotyledon') has only one cotyledon (the first leaf to emerge from the seed when it germinates). Dicots have two (a good example is a pea).

Open a green pea and you will find the cotyledons inside, easily separated). Monocot plants tend to be long and thin (grasses and reeds) unlike dicots which tend to be 'wider' (geraniums, docks, oak trees, rhubarb, etc.)

Answer 2

Monocots have parallel leaf veins, flower parts typically in multiples of three, and scattered vascular bundles in the stem. Dicots have net-like leaf veins, flower parts typically in multiples of four or five, and a ring of vascular bundles in the stem.