Flowering Plant Classes

The Anthophyta, or flowering plants, are the largest and most diverse group of plants today, and they are usually divided into two groups based on the number of cotyledons in the embryo. Those with two cotyledons are called dicots, while those with only one are called monocots. Current hypotheses suggest that the dicots are the older group, from which the monocots evolved. Some dicots, called paleoherbs, are now believed to be closer relatives of the monocots than of the other dicots, which is why the two divisions do not map cleanly onto the evolutionary tree.