Question

Are all Gymnosperms monocot?

Answer 1

Hint: The gymnosperms and angiosperms together compose the spermatophytes or seed plants. The gymnosperms are divided into six phyla. Organisms that belong to the Cycadophyta, Ginkgophyta, Gnetophyta, and Pinophyta (also referred to as Coniferophyta) phyla are still alive while those within the Pteridospermales and Cordaitales phyla are now extinct.

Complete answer:
Gymnosperms are the group of naked seed bearing plants because the seeds aren't enclosed within the ovary but are borne on the surface of scales or leaves or modified as cones. While classifying the planets, George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker grouped the seed bearing plants into the main group Phanerogams. Under this, they placed plants with two cotyledons (Dicotyledonae), Gymnospermae( seeds not enclosed) and Monocotyledonae( seeds with one cotyledon).

The term gymnosperm (“naked seeds”) represents four extant divisions of vascular plants whose ovules (seeds) are exposed on the surface of cone scales. The cone-bearing gymnosperms are among the most important and oldest living organisms within the world. They dominated the landscape about 200 million years ago. Today gymnosperms are of great value as major sources of lumber products, pulpwood, turpentine, and resins.

Hence, gymnosperms are both monocot and dicot.

Note: The name is predicated on the unenclosed condition of their seeds (called ovules in their unfertilized state). The non-encased condition of their seeds contrasts with the seeds and ovules of flowering plants (angiosperms), which are enclosed within an ovary. Gymnosperm seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, which are often modified to make cones.