Which of the following is NOT related to reticulate venation?

Correct — C. Maize is a monocot — a grass, with one cotyledon, fibrous roots, and long leaves whose veins run parallel from base to tip.

Reticulate venation means the veins form a net, branching and rejoining across the lamina, and that is the dicot pattern.

Tulsi, coriander and China rose are all dicots and all show it. The plant that is NOT related to reticulate venation is the maize, option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Tulsi — Tulsi is a dicot of the mint family. Hold a leaf to the light and the veins branch and rejoin in a network, which is reticulate venation.
• (b)
  Coriander — Coriander is a dicot as well. Its finely divided leaflets still carry branching, net-like veins rather than parallel ones.
• (d)
  China rose — China rose, a hibiscus, is a textbook dicot: broad leaf, netted veins, and floral parts in fives.

Venation is the arrangement of veins in a leaf, and it is the quickest field test of which class a flowering plant belongs to.

Reticulate venation, a network, goes with dicots, which also have two cotyledons, a taproot, and floral parts in fours or fives.

Parallel venation goes with monocots: one cotyledon, fibrous roots, floral parts in threes. Maize, wheat, rice, grasses and banana all show it.

The correlation is a strong tendency rather than a law — Smilax is a monocot with reticulate venation.

Key facts

• Reticulate venation, a network of veins, is characteristic of dicot leaves.
• Parallel venation is characteristic of monocot leaves such as maize, wheat and grasses.
• Maize is a monocot, with one cotyledon and a fibrous root system.
• Smilax is a monocot that shows reticulate venation, so the correlation has exceptions.

Common traps

• Deciding by leaf shape. A narrow dicot leaf still has netted veins.
• Missing the capitalised NOT and picking a plant that does show reticulate venation.

No directly related past PYQ was found.