To determine an entire class of plant’s niche isn’t possible because dicots vary from roses, apple trees, poppies, dogwoods to mustard plants that each have a distinct niche.
What you can do is say the the vascular tissue provides a distinct advantage in gaining larger, wind resistant structures. More trees are dicots that monocots.
Dicot trees are oak, birch, beech, willow, maple, etc while the monocots of size are the palms and yuccas. Clearly dicots have an enormous advantage in temperate deciduous forests where they rely on C3 carbon metabolisms.
Temperature is a major rate limiting factor in the high temperate latitudes that is not present in the tropics. Only 2% of dicots use C4 carbon acquisition.
Typical C3 dicot plants include: grapevines, sunflower, tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, cotton, sugar beet, domestic fruit trees, asters, petunias, cosmos, coreopsis, dahlia, and tagetes (marigolds).
Dicots that use C3 in the subtropics like tagetes, tomatoes or peppers are are adapted to regions that receive plentiful rain and grow where water is not restricted.
Other tropical dicots are succulent like the euphorbia and cactus families that use CAM
Rainforest trees are dicots like Theobroma (Cocoa bean tree) the very tall Dipterocarps, the many Ficus species (figs),
Dicots include the leguminous trees like the tropical wattle, acacia, mimosa, and cassia trees as well as the many species with edible peas and beans.
Monocots are the plant that primarily use C4 carbon acquisition in the tropics. There are about 7,600 known C4 species or ~3% of all known plant species. Nearly 5,000 of these C4 species are among the monocot plant families; sedges (Cyperaceae), orchids (Orchidaceae), and grasses (Poaceae) including maize, sugarcane, & sorghum. Bromeliads and agaves are monocots that use CAM.
Palms and bamboo are known for their height but also their ability to flex. Lacking the vascular wood they are strong but pliant.
To determine an entire class of plant’s niche isn’t possible because dicots vary from roses, apple trees, poppies, dogwoods to mustard plants that each have a distinct niche.
What you can do is say the the vascular tissue provides a distinct advantage in gaining larger, wind resistant structures. More trees are dicots that monocots.
Dicot trees are oak, birch, beech, willow, maple, etc while the monocots of size are the palms and yuccas. Clearly dicots have an enormous advantage in temperate deciduous forests where they rely on C3 carbon metabolisms.
Temperature is a major rate limiting factor in the high temperate latitudes that is not present in the tropics. Only 2% of dicots use C4 carbon acquisition.
Typical C3 dicot plants include: grapevines, sunflower, tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, cotton, sugar beet, domestic fruit trees, asters, petunias, cosmos, coreopsis, dahlia, and tagetes (marigolds).
Dicots that use C3 in the subtropics like tagetes, tomatoes or peppers are are adapted to regions that receive plentiful rain and grow where water is not restricted.
Other tropical dicots are succulent like the euphorbia and cactus families that use CAM
Rainforest trees are dicots like Theobroma (Cocoa bean tree) the very tall Dipterocarps, the many Ficus species (figs),
Dicots include the leguminous trees like the tropical wattle, acacia, mimosa, and cassia trees as well as the many species with edible peas and beans.
Monocots are the plant that primarily use C4 carbon acquisition in the tropics. There are about 7,600 known C4 species or ~3% of all known plant species. Nearly 5,000 of these C4 species are among the monocot plant families; sedges (Cyperaceae), orchids (Orchidaceae), and grasses (Poaceae) including maize, sugarcane, & sorghum. Bromeliads and agaves are monocots that use CAM.
Palms and bamboo are known for their height but also their ability to flex. Lacking the vascular wood they are strong but pliant.