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Has there ever been a plant that can combine a
monocot and a dicot?
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Question Date: 2006-11-17 | | Answer 1:
In biology, the lines between different groups in
classification systems are rarely as sharp as we
imagine them to be. This is because life is
constantly evolving and changing. In a simple
thought exercise, you can imagine that in the very
distant past, the precursors of modern plants were
all monocots. Dicot species did not emerge
instantly from these precursors, as a distinct
species from their monocot parents. That would be
analogous to a pet lizard that laid eggs which
baby birds hatched from. Rather, gradual
evolutionary change causes numerous small
differences that over time led to different
morphology, and eventually making them distinct
enough that we would classify them as different
classes or species upon examination. However,
many "in-between" stages may still exist as modern
species as well. In the case of monocots and
dicots, I found this website:
monocotdicot
The
most direct answer to your question concerns these
"in-between" species: "It is now believed that
some of the dicots are more closely related to
monocots than to the other dicots, and that the
angiosperms do not all fit neatly into two
cades."
That comes from a section on the
fuzzy distinction between the classes: "Even after
the general acceptance of Monocots and Dicots as
the primary groups of flowering plants, botanists
did not always agree upon the placement of
families into one or the other class. Even in this
century some plants called paleoherbs have left
problems for taxonomy of angiosperms. These plants
have a mix of characters which do not occur
together in most other flowering plants. For
instance, the Nymphaeales, or water lilies, have
reticulate venation in their leaves, and what may
be a single cotyledon in the embryo. It is not
clear whether it is a single lobed cotyledon, or
two which have been fused. The water lilies also
have a vascular arrangement in their stem similar
to that of monocots.There are also monocots which
posses characters more typical of dicots. The
Dioscoreales and Smilacaceae have broad
reticulate-veined leaves; the Alismataceae have
acropetal leaf development; and Potamogeton is one
of several monocots to have floral parts in
multiples of four. This "fuzziness" in the
definitions of Monocotyledonae and Dicotyledonae
is not simply the result of poor botany. Rather,
it is a real phenomenon resulting from the shared
ancestry of the two groups. It is now believed
that some of the dicots are more closely related
to monocots than to the other dicots, and that the
angiosperms do not all fit neatly into two Cades.
In other words, the dicots include a basal
paraphyletic group from which the monocots evolved. | | Answer 2:
Wow, this is a difficult question.The terms
monocot and dicot are words we have invented to
separate plants depending on what kind of seeds
they have (specifically, how many cotyledons are
produced during one stage of development).
Further, adult monocots typically have certain
characteristics (such as vascular bundles arranged
randomly) that differ from those of dicots (which,
for example, have vascular bundles arranged in a
circle). It is important, however, to keep in
mind that the natural world does not always
conform nicely to our expectations. This means
that some plants that are dicots actually may be
more closely related to monocots.
This
means that there probably have been (or even are
today!) plants that are not easy to identify as
either a monocot or a dicot. They may have had
characteristics of both, for example. In terms of
the defining characteristic of how many cotyledons
they have, though, you would have to think of a
plant that had something between one and two
cotyledons-- for example, by having one cotyledon
and then part of another one. This is hard for me
to imagine, but you never know, since it seems
like with nature anything is possible!
In
terms of cross-breeding a monocot with a dicot, or
grafting part of a monocot together with part of a
dicot, I do not think these things are possible
since their development and vascular systems are
so different. Hopefully a botanist or
horticulturist can provide you with a more
definite answer, though. And if they do tell you
its not possible, keep in mind that it may not be
possible right now, but some day somebody like you
may find a way to do it! Click Here to return to the search form.
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