Monokotüüded

Monokotüüded, or monocotyledons, are one of the major divisions of flowering plants (angiosperms). The name derives from the presence of a single embryonic leaf (cotyledon) in the seed. Monocots are distinguished from dicotyledons by a number of morphological traits, including parallel leaf venation, scattered vascular bundles in the stem, absence of a true cambium layer, and floral parts typically arranged in multiples of three.

The division Monocotyledoneae contains several large plant families such as Poaceae (grasses), Liliaceae (lily family), Orchidaceae (orchids), Arecaceae (palm family), and Commelinaceae (dayflower family). Monocots play crucial ecological roles: grasses dominate many grassland and savanna ecosystems, while orchids exhibit diverse pollination strategies. Economically, monocots include major crops like wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, and cotton.

Phylogenetically, monocots form a monophyletic group that diverged from dicots in the early Cretaceous period, approximately 140 million years ago. Fossil evidence of early monocots dates to the late Jurassic. Modern systematic classification places monocots within the clade Angiosperms, usually as one of the two unranked lineages used in angiosperm phylogeny: monocots and eudicots.

Monocots exhibit considerable morphological diversity despite shared derived characters. Key features include a flexible vascular cambium in some lineages (such as palms), which allows secondary growth, and specialized inflorescence structures such as panicles and spikes. Their evolutionary success is linked to efficient reproductive strategies, including wind-pollination in grasses and intricate co-evolution with pollinators in orchids.