The quiet botanical class that feeds the world — monocots include every grass, every grain, and every orchid on Earth.
A flowering plant with a single embryonic leaf (cotyledon), typically having parallel-veined leaves and flower parts in multiples of three.
Shortened from monocotyledon, from Greek monos meaning single and kotylēdōn meaning cup-shaped hollow, from kotylē meaning cup Key roots: monos (Greek: "single, alone"), kotylēdōn (Greek: "cup-shaped hollow").
Monocots include grasses, which means they include wheat, rice, corn, barley, and sugarcane — the crops that feed humanity. If monocots disappeared overnight, civilization would collapse within weeks. They also include orchids, the largest family of flowering plants, with over 28,000 species.