#If monocots and eudicots win am I going to title the finals

[plant-taxonomy-showdown]

Class Round 2: Monocots vs Nymphaeales

The World's Largest Commodities By Tonnage vs A Good Sign The Water is Safe To Drink

Monocots: The second largest taxon in Magnoliophyta, with 70,000 species. Narrow leaves with parallel veins are a good sign you’re looking at a monocot, as are plants that grow from bulbs, like onions, garlic, and tulips. Do you need to touch grass? Monocot. Do you want to bake a cake? Wheat, sugar cane, and the orchids that produce vanilla extract are all monocots.

Nymphaeales: A basal clade of Magnoliophyta that contains the water lily family, and other aquatic plants with prominent flowers. Water lilies with larger flowers and more complex parts are pollinated by beetles -- they were initially believed to be plants that evolved earlier, but while Nymphaeales as a whole did diverge early, the ones with more flower parts did not diverge earlier than the ones with fewer flower parts. Water lilies were used as an indicator of water cleanliness in the Maya civilization, were a symbol of the Maya elite, and were likely used in a religious context to induce altered states of consciousness.