View source for Dicotyledon

{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons)
| image = Magnolia Watsoni.JPG
| image_width = 250px
| image_caption = [[Magnolia]] [[flower]]
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = '''Magnoliopsida'''
| classis_authority = [[Alexandre Brongniart|Brongniart]]
| subdivision_ranks = [[Order (biology)|Orders]]
| subdivision = 
See text.
}}
[[Image:Young castor bean plant showing prominent cotyledons.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Young [[castor oil plant]] showing its prominent two embryonic leaves ([[cotyledons]]), that differ from the adult leaves]]
'''Dicotyledons''', or '''"dicots"''', is a name for a group of [[flowering plant]]s whose [[seed]] typically contains two embryonic leaves or [[cotyledon]]s. There are around 199,350 [[species]] within this group [http://www.redlist.org/info/tables/table1]. Flowering plants that are not dicotyledons are [[monocotyledon]]s, typically having one embryonic leaf.

The dicotyledons no longer are regarded as a "good"  group, and the names "dicotyledons" and "dicots" are no longer to be used at least in a taxonomic sense. The vast majority of the former dicots, however, form a [[monophyletic]] group called the [[eudicots]] or tricolpates. These may be distinguished from all other flowering plants by the structure of their [[pollen]]. Other dicotyledons and monocotyledons have [[monosulcate]] pollen, or forms derived from it, whereas eudicots have tricolpate pollen, or derived forms, the pollen having three or more pores set in furrows called colpi.

Traditionally the dicots have been called the Dicotyledones (or Dicotyledoneae), at any rank. If treated as a class, as in the Cronquist system, they may be called the Magnoliopsida after the [[type (botany)|type genus]] ''[[Magnolia]]''. In some schemes, the eudicots are treated as a separate class, the [[Rosopsida]] (type genus ''Rosa''), or as several separate classes. The remaining dicots ([[palaeodicots]]) may be kept in a single paraphyletic class, called Magnoliopsida, or further divided.