: a subclass of Angiospermae comprising seed plants (as grasses and lilies) that produce an embryo with a single cotyledon and have usually parallel-veined leaves, stems without central pith or annual rings and with the vascular strands scattered throughout the ground tissue, and floral organs usually arranged in cycles of three or six, including some chiefly tropical arborescent plants (as the palms), but being chiefly herbaceous in habit compare dicotyledoneae
Word History
Etymology
New Latin, alteration of Monocotyledones, from mon- + cotyledones, plural of cotyledon
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