Plural of cotyledon; the seed leaves that first emerge when a plant sprouts and which store nutrients for the young plant.
From Greek kotyledon (cup-giver), plural form. Cotyledons are named for their cup shape, and they're crucial to how plants store and use energy in their first growth stages.
When you eat a peanut or split open a bean, the two halves you see are actually cotyledons—they're how plants store food for the germinating embryo, which is why seeds are so nutritious and why humans have eaten them forever.
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