 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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