Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous
family of
monocotyledonous
flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the
cereal
A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...
grasses,
bamboos and the grasses of natural
grassland and species cultivated in
lawns and
pasture. The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass.
With around 780
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
and around 12,000 species,
the Poaceae is the fifth-largest
plant family, following the
Asteraceae,
Orchidaceae,
and
Rubiaceae.
The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing
staple food
A staple food, food staple, or simply a staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given person or group of people, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and ...
s from domesticated
cereal
A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...
crops such as
maize,
wheat,
rice,
barley, and
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
as well as
feed for meat-producing animals. They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half (51%) of all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize (corn) 5.5%, and other
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
s 6%. Some members of the Poaceae are used as building materials (
bamboo,
thatch, and
straw
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...
); others can provide a source of
biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...
, primarily via the conversion of maize to
ethanol.
Grasses have
stem
Stem or STEM may refer to:
Plant structures
* Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang
* Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure
* Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
s that are hollow except at the
nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation allowing it to cope with frequent grazing.
Grasslands such as
savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
and
prairie where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of the land area of the
Earth, excluding
Greenland and
Antarctica. Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including
wetlands,
forests and
tundra.
Though they are commonly called "grasses", groups such as the
seagrasses,
rushes and
sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order
Alismatales. However, all of them belong to the
monocot group of plants.
Description
Grasses may be
annual or
perennial herbs
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
,
[ generally with the following characteristics (the image gallery can be used for reference):
The stems of grasses, called culms, are usually cylindrical (more rarely flattened, but not 3-angled) and are hollow, plugged at the nodes, where the leaves are attached.] Grass leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
are nearly always alternate and distichous (in one plane), and have parallel veins.[ Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem and a blade with entire (i.e., smooth) margins.][ The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals; some, such as sword grass, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ]ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...
lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath.[
Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets.][ The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or more florets.][ A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the ]lemma
Lemma may refer to:
Language and linguistics
* Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word
* Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered
Science and mathematics
* Lemma (botany), a ...
—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic— maize being an important exception—and mainly anemophilous or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called '' lodicules'',[ that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. The fruit of grasses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall.][
A tiller is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed.][
]
Growth and development
Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips. This low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows grasses to be grazed
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other f ...
or mown regularly without severe damage to the plant.
Three general classifications of growth habit present in grasses: bunch-type (also called caespitose), stolon
In biology, stolons (from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as runners, are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external s ...
iferous, and rhizomatous.
The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes and in part in their physiological diversity. There are both C3 and C4 grasses, referring to the photosynthetic pathway for carbon fixation. The C4 grasses have a photosynthetic pathway, linked to specialized Kranz leaf anatomy, which allows for increased water use efficiency, rendering them better adapted to hot, arid environments.
The C3 grasses are referred to as "cool-season" grasses, while the C4 plants are considered "warm-season" grasses.[
* Annual cool-season – wheat, ]rye
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...
, annual bluegrass (annual meadowgrass, '' Poa annua''), and oat
* Perennial cool-season – orchardgrass (cocksfoot, '' Dactylis glomerata''), fescue ('' Festuca'' spp.), Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass ('' Lolium perenne'')
* Annual warm-season – maize, sudangrass, and pearl millet
Pearl millet (''Cenchrus americanus'', commonly known as the synonym ''Pennisetum glaucum''; also known as 'Bajra' in Hindi, 'Sajje' in Kannada, 'Kambu' in Tamil, 'Bajeer' in Kumaoni and 'Maiwa' in Hausa, 'Mexoeira' in Mozambique) is the most w ...
* Perennial warm-season – big bluestem, Indiangrass, Bermudagrass and switchgrass.
Although the C4 species are all in the PACMAD clade (see diagram above), it seems that various forms of C4 have arisen some twenty or more times, in various subfamilies or genera. In the '' Aristida'' genus for example, one species (''A. longifolia'') is C3 but the approximately 300 other species are C4. As another example, the whole tribe of Andropogoneae, which includes maize, sorghum
''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...
, sugar cane, " Job's tears", and bluestem grass
Bluestem can refer to various grasses:
* Little bluestem (''Schizachyrium scoparium'')
* Big bluestem (''Andropogon gerardii'') and other species of the genus '' Andropogon''
* Species in the genus ''Dichanthium''
* Cane bluestem and Caucasian bl ...
es, is C4. Around 46 percent of grass species are C4 plants.
Taxonomy
The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown, and the type genus ''Poa
''Poa'' is a genus of about 570 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass (mainly in Europe and Asia), bluegrass (mainly in North America), tussock (some New Zealand species), a ...
'' described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα (póa, "fodder").
Evolutionary history
Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms. They became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period, and fossilized dinosaur dung ( coprolites) have been found containing phytoliths of a variety that include grasses that are related to modern rice and bamboo. Grasses have adapted to conditions in lush rain forests, dry desert
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
s, cold mountains and even intertidal habitats, and are currently the most widespread plant type; grass is a valuable source of food and energy for all sorts of wildlife.
A cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets:[ ]
Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Finds of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites from the latest Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian) aged Lameta Formation of India have pushed this date back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, fossils from the same deposit were found to belong to the modern rice tribe Oryzeae, suggesting substantial diversification of major lineages by this time.
Wu, You & Li (2018) described grass microfossils extracted from the teeth of the hadrosauroid dinosaur ''Equijubus
''Equijubus'' (; ''Mǎzōng'' meaning "horse mane" after the area Mǎzōng Mountain 马鬃山 in which it was found), is a genus of herbivorous hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Albian stage) of northwestern China.
Discovery and ...
normani'' from northern China, dating to the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous
The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma.
Geology
Pro ...
approximately 113–100 million years ago, which were found to belong to primitive lineages within Poaceae, similar in position to the Anomochlooideae. These are currently the oldest known grass fossils.
The relationships among the three subfamilies Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae and Pooideae in the BOP clade have been resolved: Bambusoideae and Pooideae are more closely related to each other than to Oryzoideae. This separation occurred within the relatively short time span of about 4 million years.
According to Lester Charles King the spread of grasses in the Late Cenozoic would have changed patterns of hillslope evolution favouring slopes that are convex upslope and concave downslope and lacking a free face were common. King argued that this was the result of more slowly acting surface wash caused by carpets of grass which in turn would have resulted in relatively more soil creep.
Subdivisions
There are about 12,000 grass species in about 771 genera that are classified into 12 subfamilies.[ ] See the full list of Poaceae genera.
* Anomochlooideae
Anomochlooideae is a subfamily of the true grass family Poaceae. It is sister to all the other grasses. It includes perennial herbs that grow on the shaded floor of forests in the Neotropics
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeogr ...
Pilg. ex Potztal, a small lineage of broad-leaved grasses that includes two genera (''Anomochloa'', ''Streptochaeta'')
* Pharoideae L.G.Clark & Judz., a small lineage of grasses of three genera, including ''Pharus'' and ''Leptaspis''
* Puelioideae L.G.Clark, M.Kobay., S.Mathews, Spangler
Spangler is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Aaron Spangler (born 1971), American sculptor and printmaker
*Al Spangler (born 1933), American baseball player
* Amy Spangler (born 1949), American breastfeeding activist and consul ...
& E.A.Kellogg, a small lineage of the African genus ''Puelia''
* Pooideae, including wheat, barley, oats, brome-grass ('' Bromus''), reed-grasses (''Calamagrostis'') and many lawn and pasture grasses such as bluegrass (''Poa'')
* Bambusoideae, including bamboo
* Ehrhartoideae, including rice and wild rice
* Aristidoideae, including '' Aristida''
* Arundinoideae
The Arundinoideae are a subfamily of the true grass family Poaceae with around 40 species, including giant reed and common reed. Unlike many other members of the PACMAD clade of grasses, the Arundinoideae all use C3 photosynthesis. Their sister ...
, including giant reed and common reed
* Chloridoideae, including the lovegrasses (''Eragrostis'', about 350 species, including teff), dropseeds (''Sporobolus'', some 160 species), finger millet (''Eleusine coracana'' (L.) Gaertn.), and the muhly grasses (''Muhlenbergia'', about 175 species)
* Panicoideae, including panic grass
''Panicum'' (panicgrass) is a large genus of about 450 species of Poaceae, grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone. They are often large, Annual plant, annual or P ...
, maize, sorghum
''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...
, sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
, most millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
s, fonio, " Job's tears", and bluestem grass
Bluestem can refer to various grasses:
* Little bluestem (''Schizachyrium scoparium'')
* Big bluestem (''Andropogon gerardii'') and other species of the genus '' Andropogon''
* Species in the genus ''Dichanthium''
* Cane bluestem and Caucasian bl ...
es
* Micrairoideae
* Danthonioideae, including pampas grass
Distribution
The grass family is one of the most widely distributed and abundant groups of plants on Earth. Grasses are found on every continent, including Antarctica. The Antarctic hair grass, '' Deschampsia antarctica'' is one of only two plant species native to the western Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...
.
Ecology
Grasses are the dominant vegetation in many habitats, including grassland, salt-marsh, reedswamp
A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and
estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. ...
and steppes. They also occur as a smaller part of the vegetation in almost every other terrestrial habitat.
Grass-dominated biomes are called grasslands. If only large, contiguous areas of grasslands are counted, these biomes cover 31% of the planet's land. Grasslands include pampas, steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
s, and prairies.
Grasses provide food to many grazing mammals, as well as to many species of butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
and moths.
Many types of animals eat grass as their main source of food, and are called '' graminivores'' – these include cattle, sheep, horses, rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
s and many invertebrates, such as grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshopp ...
s and the caterpillars of many brown butterflies. Grasses are also eaten by omnivorous or even occasionally by primarily carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
animals.
Grasses dominate certain biomes
A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...
, especially temperate grasslands, because many species are adapted to grazing and fire.
Grasses are unusual in that the meristem is near the bottom of the plant; hence, grasses can quickly recover from cropping at the top.
The evolution of large grazing animals in the Cenozoic
The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...
contributed to the spread of grasses. Without large grazers, fire-cleared areas are quickly colonized by grasses, and with enough rain, tree seedlings. Trees eventually outcompete most grasses. Trampling grazers kill seedling trees but not grasses.
Uses
Grasses are, in human terms, perhaps the most economically important plant family. Their economic importance stems from several areas, including food production, industry, and lawns. They have been grown as food for domesticated animals for up to 6,000 years and the grains of grasses such as wheat, rice, maize (corn) and barley have been the most important human food crop
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponics ...
s. Grasses are also used in the manufacture of thatch, paper, fuel
A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...
, clothing, insulation, timber for fencing, furniture
Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
, scaffolding and construction materials, floor matting, sports turf and baskets.
Food production
Of all crops grown, 70% are grasses. Agricultural grasses grown for their edible seeds are called ''cereal
A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...
s'' or ''grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
s'' (although the latter term, when used agriculturally, refers to both cereals and similar seeds of other plant species, such as buckwheat and legumes
A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock fo ...
). Three cereals—rice, wheat, and maize (corn)—provide more than half of all calories consumed by humans. Cereals constitute the major source of carbohydrates for humans and perhaps the major source of protein; these include rice (in southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
and eastern Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
), maize (in Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
and South America), and wheat and barley (in Europe, northern Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
and the Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
).
Sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
is the major source of sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
production. Additional food uses of sugarcane include sprouted grain, shoots, and rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
s, and in drink they include sugarcane juice and plant milk
Plant milk is a plant beverage with a color resembling that of milk. Plant milks are non-dairy beverages made from a water-based plant extract for flavoring and aroma. Plant milks are consumed as alternatives to milk, and often provide a crea ...
, as well as rum, beer, whisky, and vodka.
Bamboo shoots are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, in both fresh, fermented and canned versions.
Lemongrass is a grass used as a culinary herb for its citrus-like flavor and scent.
Many species of grass are grown as pasture for foraging or as fodder
Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...
for prescribed livestock feeds, particularly in the case of cattle, horses, and sheep. Such grasses may be cut and stored for later feeding, especially for the winter, in the form of bales of hay or straw
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...
, or in silos as silage. Straw (and sometimes hay) may also be used as bedding for animals.
An example of a sod-forming perennial grass used in agriculture is ''Thinopyrum intermedium
''Thinopyrum intermedium'', known commonly as intermediate wheatgrass, is a sod-forming perennial grass in the Triticeae tribe of Pooideae native to Europe and Western Asia. It is part of a group of plants commonly called wheatgrasses beca ...
''.
Industry
Grasses are used as raw material for a multitude of purposes, including construction and in the composition of building materials such as cob, for insulation, in the manufacture of paper and board such as oriented structural straw board Oriented structural straw board (OSSB) is an engineered board that is made by splitting straw and formed by adding formaldehyde-free adhesives and then hot compressing layers of straw in specific orientations. Research and development for OSSB pan ...
. Grass fiber can be used for making paper, biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...
production, nonwoven fabrics, and as replacement for glass fibers used in reinforced plastics. Bamboo scaffolding is able to withstand typhoon-force winds that would break steel scaffolding. Larger bamboos and '' Arundo donax'' have stout culms that can be used in a manner similar to timber, ''Arundo'' is used to make reeds for woodwind instruments, and bamboo is used for innumerable implements.
'' ''Phragmites australis'''' (common reed) is important for thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
and wall construction of homes in Africa.
Grasses are used in water treatment systems, in wetland conservation and land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
, and used to lessen the erosional impact of urban storm water runoff.
Lawn and ornamental use
Grasses are the primary plant used in lawns, which themselves derive from grazed grasslands in Europe. They also provide an important means of erosion control (e.g., along roadsides), especially on sloping land. Grass lawns are an important covering of playing surfaces in many sports, including football (soccer), American football, tennis, golf, cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, softball and baseball.
Ornamental grasses, such as perennial bunch grasses, are used in many styles of garden design for their foliage, inflorescences, seed heads. They are often used in natural landscaping, xeriscaping and slope and beach stabilization in contemporary landscaping, wildlife gardening, and native plant gardening. They are used as screens and hedges.
Sports turf
Grass playing fields, courses and pitches are the traditional playing surfaces for many sports, including American football, association football, baseball, cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, golf, and rugby. Grass surfaces are also sometimes used for horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
and tennis. Type of maintenance and species of grass used may be important factors for some sports, less critical for others. In some sports facilities, including indoor domes and other places where maintenance of a grass field would be difficult, grass may be replaced with artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...
, a synthetic grass-like substitute.
Cricket
In cricket, the pitch is the strip of carefully mowed and rolled grass where the bowler bowls. In the days leading up to the match it is repeatedly mowed and rolled to produce a very hard, flat surface for the ball to bounce off.
Golf
Grass on golf courses is kept in three distinct conditions: that of the ''rough'', the ''fairway'', and the ''putting green''. Grass on the fairway is mown short and even, allowing the player to strike the ball cleanly. Playing from the rough is a disadvantage because the long grass may affect the flight of the ball. Grass on the putting green is the shortest and most even, ideally allowing the ball to roll smoothly over the surface. An entire industry revolves around the development and marketing of turf grass varieties.
Tennis
In tennis, grass is grown on very hard-packed soil, and the bounce of a tennis ball may vary depending on the grass's health, how recently it has been mowed, and the wear and tear of recent play. The surface is softer than hard courts and clay (other tennis surfaces), so the ball bounces lower, and players must reach the ball faster resulting in a different style of play which may suit some players more than others. Among the world's most prestigious court for grass tennis is Centre Court at Wimbledon, London which hosts the final of the annual Wimbledon Championships in England, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Economically important grasses
A number of grasses are invasive species that damage natural ecosystems, including forms of ''Phragmites australis'' which are native to Eurasia but has spread around the world.
Role in society
Grasses have long had significance in human society. They have been cultivated as feed for people and domesticated animals for thousands of years. The primary ingredient of beer is usually barley or wheat, both of which have been used for this purpose for over 4,000 years.
In some places, particularly in suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
an areas, the maintenance of a grass lawn is a sign of a homeowner's responsibility to the overall appearance of their neighborhood. One work credits lawn maintenance to:
In communities with drought problems, watering of lawns may be restricted to certain times of day or days of the week. Many US municipalities and homeowners' associations have rules which require lawns to be maintained to certain specifications, sanctioning those who allow the grass to grow too long.
The smell of the freshly cut grass is produced mainly by cis-3-Hexenal.
Some common aphorisms involve grass. For example:
* "The grass is always greener on the other side" suggests an alternate state of affairs will always seem preferable to one's own.
* "Don't let the grass grow under your feet" tells someone to get moving.
* "A snake in the grass" means dangers that are hidden.
* "When elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers" tells of bystanders caught in the crossfire.
A folk myth about grass is that it refuses to grow where any violent death has occurred.[Olmert, Michael (1996). ''Milton's Teeth and Ovid's Umbrella: Curiouser & Curiouser Adventures in History'', p. 208. Simon & Schuster, New York. .]
Image gallery
File:Ruwbeemdgras Poa trivialis ligula.jpg, Leaves of '' Poa trivialis'' showing the ligules A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...
File:Bamboo DSCN2465.jpg, Bamboo stem and leaves, nodes are evident
File:Chasmanthium latifolium-spikelet.jpg, A ''Chasmanthium latifolium
''Chasmanthium latifolium'', known as northern wood-oats, inland sea oats, northern sea oats, and river oats is a species of grass native to the central and eastern United States, Manitoba, and northeastern Mexico; it grows as far north as Pennsy ...
'' spikelet
File:En Spica spiculae.png, Wheat spike and spikelet
File:En Aperta.png, Spikelet opened to show caryopsis
File:Harestail grass.jpg, Harestail grass
File:Grass.jpg, Grass
File:Saccharum-officinarum2.JPG, Sugarcane ('' Saccharum officinarum'')
File:Bromus hordeaceus unten.jpeg, Roots of '' Bromus hordeaceus''
File:Ohra.jpg, Barley mature spikes ('' Hordeum vulgare'')
File:Koeh-283.jpg, Illustration depicting both staminate and pistillate flowers of maize (''Zea mays
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
'')
File:Flowering Grass.JPG, A grass flower head (meadow foxtail) showing the plain-coloured flowers with large anthers.
File:Grass Anthers.JPG, Anthers detached from a meadow foxtail flower
File:Setaria verticillata W IMG 1084.jpg, '' Setaria verticillata'', bristly foxtail
File:Setaria verticillata W IMG 1083.jpg, '' Setaria verticillata'', bristly foxtail
File:Oryza sativa in Kadavoor.jpg, '' Oryza sativa'', Kerala, India
See also
* Agrostology
* Forb
* GrassBase
* PACMAD clade
* Thinopyrum intermedium
''Thinopyrum intermedium'', known commonly as intermediate wheatgrass, is a sod-forming perennial grass in the Triticeae tribe of Pooideae native to Europe and Western Asia. It is part of a group of plants commonly called wheatgrasses beca ...
References
External links
*
Need a Definition of Grass?
Vegetative Key to Grasses
Poaceae
a
''The Plant List''
a
''The Families of Flowering Plants (DELTA)''
at th
''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website''
''Poaceae Classification''
from the onlin
''Catalogue of New World Grasses''
Poaceae
at the onlin
''Guide to the Flora of Mongolia''
Poaceae
at the onlin
''Flora of Taiwan''
Poaceae
at the onlin
''Flora of Pakistan''
Poaceae
at the onlin
''Flora of Zimbabwe''
Poaceae
at the onlin
''Flora of Western Australia''
* Grasses of Australia (AusGrass2) – http://ausgrass2.myspecies.info/
Gramineae
at the onlin
''Flora of New Zealand''
NZ Grass Key
An Interactive Key to New Zealand Grasses a
''Landcare Research''
The Grass Genera of the World
a
''DELTA intkey''
''GrassWorld''
{{Authority control
Poales families
Grasslands
Plant life-forms
Plants by habit
Extant Albian first appearances