Editing Monocotyledon (section)

====Aquatic monocots====
The aquatic monocots of Alismatales have commonly been regarded as "primitive".{{sfn|Hallier|1905}}{{sfn|Arber|1925}}{{sfn|Hutchinson|1973}}{{sfn|Cronquist| 1981}}{{sfn|Cronquist| 1988}}{{sfn|Takhtajan| 2009}}{{sfn|Takhtajan|1991}}{{sfn|Stebbins|1974}}{{sfn|Thorne|1976}} They have also been considered to have the most primitive foliage, which were cross-linked as Dioscoreales{{sfn|Dahlgren|Clifford|Yeo|1985}} and [[Melanthiales]].{{sfn|Thorne|1992a}}{{sfn|Thorne|1992b}} Keep in mind that the "most primitive" monocot is not necessarily "the sister of everyone else".{{sfn|Soltis et al.|2005}} This is because the ancestral or primitive characters are inferred by means of the reconstruction of character states, with the help of the phylogenetic tree. So primitive characters of monocots may be present in some derived groups. On the other hand, the basal taxa may exhibit many [[morphology (biology)|morphological]] [[autapomorphy|autapomorphies]]. So although Acoraceae is the sister group to the remaining monocotyledons, the result does not imply that Acoraceae is "the most primitive monocot" in terms of its character states. In fact, Acoraceae is highly derived in many morphological characters, and that is precisely why Acoraceae and Alismatales occupied relatively derived positions in the trees produced by Chase ''et al.''{{sfn|Chase et al| 1995}} and others.{{sfn|Loconte|Stevenson|1991}}{{sfn|Stevenson|Loconte|1995}}

Some authors support the idea of an aquatic phase as the origin of monocots.{{sfn|Henslow|1893}} The phylogenetic position of Alismatales (many water), which occupy a relationship with the rest except the Acoraceae, do not rule out the idea, because it could be 'the most primitive monocots' but not 'the most basal'. The Atactostele stem, the long and linear leaves, the absence of secondary growth (see the [[biomechanics]] of living in the water), roots in groups instead of a single root branching (related to the nature of the [[substrata (gardening)|substrate]]), including [[sympodial]] use, are consistent with a water source. However, while monocots were sisters of the aquatic [[Ceratophyllales]], or their origin is related to the adoption of some form of aquatic habit, it would not help much to the understanding of how it evolved to develop their distinctive anatomical features: the monocots seem so different from the rest of angiosperms and it's difficult to relate their morphology, anatomy and development and those of broad-leaved angiosperms.{{sfn|Zimmermann| Tomlinson| 1972}}{{sfn|Tomlinson|1995}}