The dicotyledons, also known as dicots, were one of the two groups of flowering plants or angiosperms. The name refers to one of the characteristics of the group, namely that the seed has two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. There are around 200,000 species in this group. The other group of flowering plants were called monocotyledons or monocots, with one cotyledon. Historically, these two groups formed the two divisions of the flowering plants.