{{taxobox |name = Poaceae (true grasses) |fossil_range = Late Cretaceous - present |image = Meadow Foxtail head.jpg |image_caption = Flowering head of Meadow Foxtail (''Alopecurus pratensis''), with stamens exerted at anthesis |regnum = Plantae |unranked_divisio = Angiosperms |unranked_classis = Monocots |unranked_ordo = Commelinids |ordo = Poales |familia = Poaceae |subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies |subdivision = There are 12 subfamilies: Subfamily Anomochlooideae Subfamily Pharoideae Subfamily Puelioideae Subfamily Bambusoideae Subfamily Pooideae Subfamily Ehrhartoideae Subfamily Arundinoideae Subfamily Centothecoideae Subfamily Chloridoideae Subfamily Panicoideae Subfamily Danthonioideae Subfamily Micrairoideae |}}

Poaceae (formerly known as Gramineae) are a family in the Class Liliopsida (the monocots) of the flowering plants. Plants of this family are usually called grasses, or, to distinguish them from other graminoids, true grasses; the shrub- or tree-like plants in this family are called bamboo (there are also herbaceous, non-woody bamboos). There are about 600 genera and some 9,000–10,000 or more species of grasses (Kew Index of World Grass Species).

Plant communities dominated by Poaceae are called grasslands; it is estimated that grasslands comprise 20% of the vegetation cover of the Earth. Grass species also occur in many other habitats that are not formally considered to be grasslands, including different types of wetlands (e.g., fens, marshes), forests and tundra.

Poaceae are often considered to be the most important of all plant families to human economies: it includes the staple food grains and cereal crops grown around the world, lawn and forage grasses, and bamboo, which is widely used for construction throughout east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Civilization was founded largely on the ability to domesticate cereal grass crops around the world.

The term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not members of the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes (Juncaceae) and sedges (Cyperaceae). This broad and general use of the word ‘grass’ has led to plants of the Poaceae often being called "true grasses".

Structure and growth

Grasses generally have the following characteristics (it is advisable to have a look at the image gallery for reference):

General aspects

Poaceae have hollow stems called ''culms'', which are plugged (solid) at intervals called ''nodes'', the points along the culm at which leaves arise. Grass leaves are alternate, ''distichous'' (in one plane) or rarely spiral, and parallel-veined. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower ''sheath'' which hugs the stem for a distance and a ''blade'' with margins usually entire. The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which helps discourage grazing animals. In some grasses (such as sword grass) this makes the edges of the grass blades sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs, called the ''ligule'', lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath.

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 or mown regularly without severe damage to the plant.

Reproduction

Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in ''spikelets'', each spikelet having one or more florets (the spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes). 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 called the ''lemma'' (the external one) and the ''palea'' (the internal). The flowers are usually hermaphroditic (maize, monoecious, is an exception) and pollination is always anemophilous, that is, by wind. 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. This complex structure can be seen in the image on the left, portraying a wheat (''Triticum aestivum'') spike.

The fruit of Poaceae is a ''caryopsis'', in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall and thus, not separable from it (as in a maize kernel).

Growth

There are three general classifications of growth habit present in grasses; bunch-type (also called caespitose), stoloniferous, and rhizomatous.

The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes, and in part in their physiological diversity. Most of the grasses divide into two physiological groups, using the C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways for carbon fixation. The C4 grasses have a photosynthetic pathway linked to specialized Kranz leaf anatomy that particularly adapts them to hot climates and an atmosphere low in carbon dioxide.

C3 grasses are referred to as "cool season grasses" while C4 plants are considered "warm season grasses". Grasses may be either annual or perennial.

Annual Cool Season - wheat, rye, 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 - corn, sudangrass, and pearl millet

Perennial Warm Season - big bluestem, indiangrass, bermudagrass and switchgrass.

Grass evolution

Until recently grasses were thought to have evolved around 55 million years ago, based on fossil records. However, recent findings of 65-million-year-old phytoliths resembling grass phytoliths (including ancestors of rice and bamboo) in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites, may place the diversification of grasses to an earlier date.

Subfamilies and genera

The most recent classification of the grass family recognizes twelve subfamilies:

Anomochlooideae, a small lineage of broad-leaved grasses that includes two genera (''Anomochloa'', ''Streptochaeta'')

Pharoideae, a small lineage of grasses that includes three genera, including ''Pharus'' and ''Leptaspis''

Puelioideae, a small lineage that includes the African genus ''Puelia''.

Pooideae, including wheat, barley, oats, brome-grass (''Bromus''), reed-grasses (''Calamagrostis'') and many lawn and pasture grasses

Bambusoideae, including bamboo

Ehrhartoideae, including rice, wild rice

Arundinoideae, including giant reed, common reed

Centothecoideae, a small subfamily of 11 genera that is sometimes included in Panicoideae

Chloridoideae, including the lovegrasses (''Eragrostis'', ca. 350 species, including teff), dropseeds (''Sporobolus'', some 160 species), finger millet (''Eleusine coracana'' (L.) Gaertn.), and the muhly grasses (''Muhlenbergia'', ca. 175 species)

Panicoideae, including panic grass, maize, sorghum, sugar cane, most millets, fonio, and bluestem grasses

Micrairoideae

Danthonioideae, including pampas grass

''Poa'' is a Pooideae genus of about 500 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres.

Economic importance

Grasses are, in human terms, perhaps the most economically important plant family. Grasses' economic importance stems from several areas, including food production, industry, and lawns.

Food production

Agricultural grasses grown for their edible seeds are called ''cereals''. Three cereals – rice, wheat, and maize (corn) – provide more than half of all calories eaten by humans. Of all crops, 70% are grasses. Cereals constitute the major source of carbohydrate for humans and perhaps the major source of protein, and include rice in southern and eastern Asia, maize in Central and South America, and wheat and barley in Europe, northern Asia and the Americas.

Sugarcane is the major source of sugar production. Many other grasses are grown for forage and fodder for animal food, particularly for sheep and cattle, thereby indirectly providing more human calories.

Industry

Grasses are used for construction. Scaffolding made from bamboo 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, and grass roots stabilize the sod of sod houses. ''Arundo'' is used to make reeds for woodwind instruments, and bamboo is used for innumerable implements.

Grass fibre can be used for making paper, and for biofuel production.

''''Phragmites australis'''' (common reed) is important in water treatment, wetland habitat preservation and land reclamation in the Old World.

Lawn and ornamental grasses

Grasses are the primary plant used in lawns, which themselves derive from grazed grasslands in Europe. They are also provide an important means of erosion control (e.g., along roadsides), especially on sloping land.

Although supplanted by artificial turf in some games, grasses are still an important covering of playing surfaces in many sports, including football, tennis, golf, cricket, and softball/baseball.

Ornamental grasses, such as perennial bunch grasses, are used in many styles of garden design for their foliage, inflorescences, seed heads, and slope stabilization. They are often used in natural landscaping, xeriscaping, contemporary or modern landscaping, wildlife gardening, and native plant gardening.

Economically important grasses

{| |- valign=top | ;Grain crops

Barley

Maize (Corn)

Oats

Rice

Rye

Sorghum

Wheat

Millet

| ;Leaf and stem crops

Bamboo

Marram grass

Meadow-grass

Reed

Ryegrass

Sugarcane

| ;Lawn grasses

Bahia grass

Bent grass

Bermuda grass

Centipede grass

Fescue

Meadow-grass

Ryegrass

St. Augustine grass

Zoysia

| ;Ornamental grasses (Horticultural)

Calamagrostis spp.

Cortaderia spp.

Deschampsia spp.

Festuca spp.

Melica spp.

Muhlenbergia spp.

Stipa spp.

| ;Model organisms

''Brachypodium distachyon''

Maize (Corn)

Rice

Sorghum

Wheat

|}

Ecological importance

With 10,025 known species, the Poaceae is the fourth largest plant family. Only Orchidaceae, Asteraceae, and Fabaceae have more species, although with over 10,000 species the Rubiaceae is not far behind.

Biomes dominated by grasses are called grasslands. If only large contiguous areas of grasslands are counted, these biomes cover 31% of the planet's land. Grasslands go by various names depending on location, including pampas, plains, steppes, or prairie.

In addition to their use as forage worldwide by many grazing mammals such as cattle and other livestock, deer, and elephants, grasses are used as food plants by many species of butterflies and moths; see List of Lepidoptera that feed on grasses.

The evolution of large grazing animals in the Cenozoic has contributed to the spread of grasses. Without large grazers, a clearcut of fire-destroyed area would soon be colonized by grasses and, if there is enough rain, tree seedlings. The tree seedlings would eventually produce shade, which kills most grasses. Large animals, however, trample the seedlings, killing the trees. Grasses persist because their lack of woody stems helps them to resist the damage of trampling.

Grass and society

Grasses have long had significance in human society. They have been cultivated as a food source for domesticated animals for up to 10,000 years, and have been used to make paper since the 2nd century AD. Also, the primary ingredient of beer is usually barley or wheat, both grasses that have been used for this purpose for over 4,000 years.

Some common aphorisms involve grass. For example:

"The grass is always greener on the other side" suggests that 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 who suffers" tells of bystanders caught in the crossfire.

Myths

A folk myth about grass is that it refuses to grow where any violent death has occurred.

Gallery

See also

Agrostology

Grass

Bunch grass

Ornamental grass

Sedges

List of Poaceae genera

References

Kew gardens grass database

Further reading

Chapman, G.P. and W.E. Peat. 1992. An Introduction to the Grasses. CAB International, Wallingford.

Cheplick, G.P. 1998. Population Biology of Grasses. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

External links

TurfFiles by North Carolina State University

Kew Index of World Grass Species

Definitions of Grass structures

The grass genera of the world, L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards)

The families of flowering plants.

The grass genera of the world

Content summary.

Interactive Keys to North American Grasses at Utah State University

Poaceae in FloraGREIF

Category:Poales families Category:Grasslands

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Coordinates	39°44′21″N104°59′5″N
name	Carol Klein
birth date	1945
birth place	Walkden
death date
resting place coordinates
nationality	British
known for	television gardening programmes
television	Gardeners World
employer	BBC
occupation	Television presenter
website
footnotes	}}

Carol Klein (born 1945) is a British gardening expert, who also works as a television presenter and newspaper columnist.

Born in Walkden, Salford, Lancashire, in 1945, Carol attended Bolton School and then trained as an art teacher and taught in schools in the London area before moving to Devon. There she taught at North Devon College before setting up her own plant nursery, Glebe Cottage Plants.

TV work

She made her television debut on ''Gardeners' World'' in 1989 and has since presented other gardening programmes such as ''Real Gardens'' and ''Open Gardens''.

Recent projects include ''Life in a Cottage Garden with Carol Klein'' which follows a year in the life of Carol's garden at Glebe Cottage in North Devon, and ''Grow Your Own Veg'', which encouraged people to start growing their own vegetables. Each week the programme looked at a different group of crop plants or techniques suitable for home gardening. Both programmes were made for BBC Two and she has also been a permanent presenter of ''Gardeners' World'' since 2005.

Family life

Klein is married to Neil and the couple have two daughters - Annie and Alice.

Writing

As well as television work, Carol Klein has written a number of bestselling books for Mitchell Beazley and also writes for various gardening publications such as ''BBC Gardeners' World'' magazine as well as a column for British newspaper, ''The Guardian''.

Bibliography

''Plant Personalities: Choosing and Growing Plants by Character'' with Jonathan Buckley (Cassell Illustrated, 2004) ISBN 1-8440-3046-6

''RHS Grow Your Own Veg'' (Mitchell Beazley, 2007) ISBN 9781845332938

''RHS Grow Your Own Fruit'' (Mitchell Beazley, 2008) ISBN 9781845334345

''RHS Grow Your Own Veg Journal'' (Mitchell Beazley, 2008) ISBN 9781845334710

''Cook Your Own Veg'' (Mitchell Beazley, 2008) ISBN 9781845334079

References

External links

A firm favourite - Article by her in The Guardian, Saturday July 28, 2007

Grow your own Veg - BBC television programme

Portrait of her at the National Portrait Gallery

Life in a Cottage Garden - BBC television programme

Biography and career

Category:English gardeners Category:English garden writers Category:English television presenters Category:People from Walkden Category:Living people Category:1945 births