 Elsewhere
in this site we see that all members of the class of flowering plants belong to
one of two subclasses: They're either monocots or dicots. In our
flower section we have a special page showing the difference
between monocot and dicot flowers, which are profound. Also big differences distinguish
the leaves of most monocots and dicots. Look:
- Dicots include nearly all our trees, bushes,
vegetable-garden plants (not corn), and most of our wildflowers (not irises and lilies).
Dicot leaves are usually net-veined, as in the
close-up of the veins in a wild grape leaf at the right. Notice how the larger veins are
thicker and straighter, but as veins get smaller and smaller, they tend to snake around.
 Monocots include all grasses and
glasslike plants, plus lilies, irises, amaryllises, and some other plant types. Usually,
but not always, monocots possessparallel-veined leaves, as typified in the simple blade of fescue grass shown at
the right. One example of a monocot which does not have parallel-veined leaves is the
Trillium, several species of which are common in moist American forests.
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