What is meant by dicotyledon

The dicotyledons are also known as dicots. They are the groups into which all the flowering plants or angiosperms were formerly divided. The name dicotyledons refer to the seed having two embryonic cotyledons. There are around 200,000 species of dicotyledons.

In dicotyledons, the embryo consists of an embryo axis and two cotyledons. Cotyledons are generally swollen part which acts as a food reserve for the developing seedling. The embryo axis has two ends. The one which forms the shoot tip is called plumule and the portion at the lower end which forms the root tip is called radicle. The whole content is enclosed within a protective cover, seed coat. The seed coat is made up of an outer layer called testa and an inner layer called tegmen. And a seed is attached to the fruit through a structure called hilum.