Monocots vs. Eudicots - Tyler

Typically flowering plants & regular foliage are divided into two groups- Monocots and Eudicots (or Dicots.)
They're distinguished by the following:

Eudicots have a rather  complex system of auxiliary veins which are expressed between the major ones- more of a network.

Monocots however, have a not-so-much- network of veins running parallel to the stem... they're all in one direction and tend to not cross. You can KIND of see the veins it in the photo... but grasses are usually monocots. 

The next easily distinguished characteristic between the two would be the number of petals the flowers reproduce; Monocots produce three petals on each flower (or multiples of three.)

In contrast to Monocots, Eudicots produce petals consisting of multiples of 4 or 5. This is used a lot, but not always reliable... there are some strange plants that don't follow the rules.

Finally, you can tell wether a plant is a Monocot or Eudicot by their roots. In Eudicots, the roots grow from the lower part of the embryo, near the radicle. Monocot roots are usually adventurous and grow wherever they want.

The plants can also be determined by a few more characteristics, based on the number of coltyledons, the pollen structure and the vascular bundles.

:)