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If you've been around the gardening community for any length of time, you've probably heard the term dicot. Many common garden plants, shrubs, and trees are considered dicots. But what exactly are dicot plants?- Grapevines
- Raspberry vines
- Maple trees
- Daisies
- Dandelions
- Magnolia bushes
- Roses
- Geraniums
- Hollyhocks
- Clover
- Oak trees
We'll take a deeper look at the characteristics of dicot plants and their counterpart, the monocot, in this post. But mostly what you should keep in mind is that without dicot plants, there are many things we wouldn't have in the world. Without further ado, let's dive in!
Why Are Dicot Plants Important?
Dicot plants are ecologically important. All the major forest trees are dicots. All the flowering vines and fruit-bearing bushes are also dicots. So if you think about it, dicots give us the timber industry and the wine industry. They give us delicious grapes and raspberries. The bouquet of flowers on your coffee table is also the bounty of a dicot plant. Let's look at a few common examples below.
1. Grapevines
Grapevines have the classic netted vein pattern of a dicot plant. This vining plant is from the family Vitaceae. It's the source of so many things we love like juicy and delicious table grapes, grape juice, and wines. It's an economically important plant as a result of its versatility as a consumable. It's also a great challenge for home gardeners.
Read more: Can Grapes Be Grown Indoors? [Here’s a Step-by-Step Guide]
2. Raspberry Plants
Most of the fruit-bearing bushes and vines are dicots. The flowers that come before the fruit will have 4 to 5 petals and the veins in the leaves will have the classic netting pattern. Raspberry vines are a dicot plant. They can be grown as bushes or even upright in containers and bear delicious fruit. There are two bearing types of raspberries, those that provide fruit in the summer and everbearing which will also provide a fall harvest.
Want to give raspberry vines a chance in your garden? This everbearing variety is thornless and high-bearing, and it produces loads of sweet, delicious fruit.
Click here to see this on Amazon.
3. Maple Trees
Perhaps one of the most glorious of the deciduous trees, the maple is indeed a dicot plant. In fact, all dicots are grown from seed (as opposed to pines which produce seed in cones, or plants that reproduce through spores). With maples, they have the distinctive webbing in the leaves veins that give away the fact that they are dicots.
4. Daisies
A quick and easy way to know if a flower is a dicot or monocot is by the number of petals it has. Any flower that petals in multiples of four or five is a dicot. Daisies look as if they have loads of petals because they are actually two flower heads in one. Look at these glorious Shasta daisies and how cheerful and beautiful they are!
Love flowers? Check out our post which includes daisies here: 19 Annuals for Afternoon Sun [Tips and PICTURES Included])
When you're ready to plant there are so many color varieties of this delightful flower. This mix is called an African daisy mix.
You can purchase the seeds here on Amazon.
5. Dandelions
A weed to some, edible to others, something to wish upon for children, the much-maligned dandelion is a dicot plant. It has the characteristic deep tap root found on many dicots, is grown from the seed that spreads from the classic dandelion fluff, and has a multi-petaled yellow flower.
6. Magnolia Bushes
Magnolias have traditionally been considered to be dicots. They have some features of dicots, but their flowers are single and arranged spirally. They produce pollen grains, each of which has only a single pore. These features are typically found in monocots. Because of this, some have placed them in a new category, the classmagnoliids. But most often you find them listed as dicots.
7. Roses
The rose, from the family Rosacea, is a relative of the raspberry. Though we associate it with its beautiful multi-petaled blooms, it does produce fruit in the form of rosehips which can be used in tea blends. The rose plant is a classic dicot plant.
8. Geraniums
Geraniums are a vibrant container garden annual for many home gardeners. They are also a dicot plant. Grown from seed and with a five-petaled flower, it has classic characteristics of a dicot.
Read more: Are Geraniums Annuals or Perennials? [The answer will surprise you!]
9. Hollyhocks
Beautiful, colorful hollyhocks on their tall stalks that bear multiple blooms are a gorgeous example of a dicot plant. It's from the mallow family and will attract butterflies to your garden. This flowering annual is grown from seed and has a deep taproot that helps it grow strong and tall to withstand the sway of the wind and the weather.
10. Clover
Unlike its monocot friend, grass, the darling clover is a dicot plant. Found in fields and yards, it has a bloom that attracts pollinating bees and forage that's great for the livestock. In lawns, it provides a beautiful deep green carpet interspersed with your grasses. There are even gorgeous ground cover clovers for perennial beds.
This beautiful specimen of purple shamrock displays the classic 5-petal configuration of a dicot plant.
Click here to buy this plant on Amazon.
11. Oak Tree
The magnificent oak tree is a gorgeous example of a dicot that does so much for us. Oak provides us shade and a symbol of strength. It also is a huge player in the world of furniture and timber. It fruits through its acorns which provides forage for all manner of wildlife. There are many different varieties of oak trees throughout the world but they are all dicots.
What Are Monocots?
You've probably noticed the mention of the monocot in some of these descriptions. Basically almost all flowering plants that are started from seed fall into the dicot or monocot category. We'll talk about the differences between the two in a moment, but here are some examples of monocot plants:
- Bamboo
- Lillies
- Ginger
- Wheat
- Corn
- Onions
- Grasses
What Are The 5 Differences Between Monocots And Dicots?
- Monocots have one cotyledon and a dicot has two.
- Monocots have parallel veins in their leaves whereas dicots leaf veins spread out and web.
- Monocots have flower parts in threes or multiples of threes, whereas dicots have multiples of four and five parts.
- Monocots have a fibrous mounded root system whereas dicots have a taproot system.
- Monocots like palm trees will not have "rings" in their trunks to indicate growth, whereas all dicot trees will have trunks that grow outward with rings.
In Closing
Hopefully, you can go forward now with a clearer understanding of what a dicot plant is. Remember, it must flower to be a dicot. Clues come in the number of petals on the flower, the appearance of the leaves, and the type of root it produces. So many of the plants in our garden classify as dicots, and it's truly amazing.
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