Practical: Studying plant classification
Flowering plants are divided into two classes that can be told apart by several features. A dicot (bean, apple, dandelion) has two seed leaves in its seed, usually a taproot, net-veined leaves and flower parts in fours or fives. A monocot (wheat, maize, tulip) has one seed leaf, a fibrous root system, leaves with parallel or arc veins and flower parts in threes or multiples of three. A plant’s place in classification is written from the largest unit down: kingdom, division, class, family, genus, species. For example the bean: kingdom – plants, division – flowering (angiosperms), class – dicots, family – legumes (burchoqdoshlar), genus – bean, species – red bean. A Venn diagram is handy for comparing: shared features (flower, fruit, seed) go in the overlap.
Practical work: take bean and maize (or wheat) grains soaked in water for a day. Split the bean in two with a fingernail and gently break the maize grain by hand (no knife). Count and draw the seed leaves. Then compare the leaf veins of a bean seedling and a wheat (or maize) seedling with a magnifier, and root structure from a picture or seedling. Record in a table: seed, root, leaf, flower. Safety: do not eat the seeds (they may be chemically treated), wash hands after the work, and do not pick protected species (such as wild tulips).