Types and Usage
Different types of flowers (the Angiosperms) can easily be identified by dividing them into Monocots or Dicots. By just looking at one flower we should soon be able to identify it as one or the other. This not only makes it easier to pick out the different flower types, but it is very interesting to know exactly what we are looking at.
There are other ways of classifying flowers, especially Annuals; Perennials, Biennials and Ephemerals; or even by the way they reproduce such as Sexual Reproduction and Asexual Reproduction eg. Bulbs.
Flowering Plants:
The Angiosperms are the Flowering Plants and there are around 250,000 to 400,000 different flower types. Fortunately they can be divided into two groups: Monocots and Dicots. Note that it is only the Flowering Plants that are Monocots or Dicots. Other plants such as Mosses and Ferns are neither.
Monocots have one Cotyledon (the seed capsule where the seed develops) and dicots have two. The Cotyledon contains food for the growing Embryo/s. This means that when the seed develops and grows, it will send up either one (Monocot) or two (Dicot) leaves. To think that Dicots had two seeds. Wrong.
Lists of Monocots and Dicots.
Monocots:
Lily: Oriental Lily, Daylily
Tulip
Orchid
Bluebell
Daffodil
Jonquil
Crocus
Freesia
Amaryllis
Lily of the Valley
Day Flower
Lesser Celandine (below)
Agapanthus
Dicots:
Rose
Daisy
Sweet Pea
Cosmos
Nasturtium
Hollyhock
Foxglove
Portulaca (Moss Rose or Purslane)
Begonia
Ranunculus
Marigold
Pansy
