system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why are the first 2 leaves on seedlings a different shape to all the rest?
gpt
They are called cotyledons, and actually only a subgroup of flowering plants have two, the dicots. Monocots like grasses have only one.

They are embryonic leaves that differ from the ones formed later because they have additional functions, for example storage or access to nutrient reserves of the seed and protection of the early stem.