Eudicots

Clade of mesangiospermae

Food, Plant source foods, Flowering plats (angiospermae), Mesangiosperms

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Note: For better understanding, please read the article on flowering plants (angiospermae) first. If you come across unfamiliar words, you can click on any highlighted term to open the glossary with definitions of key botanical terms.

Indroduction

Eudicots form one of the two largest groups of flowering plants, making up over 70% of angiosperm species; the other major group is the monocots. Magnoliids and some basal groups make up the remaining angiosperms but are less consistently classified. Many familiar plants belong to the eudicots, including sunflower (Helianthus), dandelion (Taraxacum), cabbage (Brassica), apple (Malus), maple (Acer), macadamia (Macadamia), and other species.

Description of eudicots

The eudicots are a major group of flowering plants that, like the Magnoliids, have two seed leaves (cotyledons) when they germinate. Both groups belong to the larger category of dicotyledons, but they differ in important ways. Eudicots are more evolutionarily advanced, characterized by having pollen with three grooves called tricolpate pollen, while magnoliids represent an earlier branch with different pollen structures and less specialized features.

Molecular data estimate that the eudicot lineage diverged from others about 134 million years ago, with fossil records showing diverse early eudicots by 121 million years ago.

Classification of eudicots

The eudicots clade is itself further divided into clades:

• Basal eudicots (macadamia nuts, poppies, sacred lotus)
• Core eudicots (apples, apricots, basil, beets, bell peppers, blackcurrants, broccoli, cacao, carrots, cauliflower, cherries, chard, chili peppers, cloves, eggplants, figs, grapes, lettuce, lemons, parsley, peaches, pears, peas, potatoes, rhubarb, sage, celery, spinach, strawberries, thyme, tomatoes, zucchini)