Fortunately, there are other rules that help determine monocots 

and dicots, which are easier to apply

•

The two most important traits are leaf vein pattern (veination) 
and numbers of petals and sepals

•

Dicots usually have a network or featherlike pinnate pattern 
of veins while

•

Monocots have the major veins parallel to each other

•

However, there are occasional exceptions 

and

some leaves 

don’t show an obvious vein pattern

•

For petal and sepal number, dicots have 4 or 5 (except for 
some early dicots that have a large number),

•

Monocots have 3 or multiples of 3

•

Again there are occasional exceptions

•

There are other traits for the two groups but many, like pollen 
details and wood anatomy are difficult to deal with