Mammoth Memory

Monocots and dicots – stem vascular bundles

One of the important differences between monocots and dicots are that monocots have scattered vascular bundles and dicots have vascular bundles in a ring.

To remember that dicots are connected together by rings, use the following mnemonic:

The two cots (di meaning two - dicots) were connected together by rings (vascular rings).

 

A mnemonic showing differences of stem vascular bundles between monocots and dicots 

 

Cross section of a dicot stem showing the organised rings of vascular bundles

If you cut a dicot stem and view one of the cut ends, you will see that the vascular bundles are arranged in a ring shape.

Cross section of a monocot stem showing the scattered vascular bundles

If you do the same to a monocot stem, you will see the vascular bundles are scattered.

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