Morphologies and Anatomies.

Morphology is the study of the external structure, such as leaf placement and orientation.  Anatomy is the study of the internal structure, like the tissue organization in the leaf.

There are two types of transport tissue in angiosperms:  xylem and phloem.  Xylem transports water and minerals up the plant to  the shoot system; phloem moves food down to the root system and other non-photosynthetic root parts.

Angiosperms are divided into monocots and dicots.  Monocots have one cotyledon, parallel leaf veins, a complex organization of vascular tissue in the stems and fibrous root systems.  Monocot flowers also have 3x number of petals; that is, the number of petals on each flower is always a multiple of three.  Dicots have two cotyledon, networked leaf veins, a ring of vascular tissue in the stem and a taproot system.  Dicot flowers always have 4x or 5x number of petals.  The diagram below graphically summarizes the differences between monocots and dicots.

Next:  "Roots."