Gourt > Science > Biology > Flora and Fauna > Plantae > Magnoliophyta > Liliopsida > Poaceae (43)
The true grasses are monocotyledonous plants (Class Liliopsida) in the Family Poaceae, also known as Gramineae. There are about 600 genera and perhaps 10,000 species of grasses. It is estimated that grasslands comprise 20% of the vegetation cover of the earth. This family is the most important of all plant families to human economies, including lawn and forage grasses, the staple food grains grown around the world, and bamboo, widely used for construction throughout Asia.
Grasses generally have the following characteristics:
- Typically hollow stems (called culms), plugged at intervals (the nodes).
- Leaves, arising at nodes, alternate, distichous (in one plane) or rarely spiral, and parallel-veined.
- Leaves differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem for a distance and a blade with margin usually entire; a ligule (a membranous appendage or ring of hairs) lies at the junction between sheath and blade.
- Small, wind-pollinated flowers (called florets) sheathed inside two glumes (bracts), lacking petals, and grouped into spikelets, these arranged in a panicle, raceme, spike, or head.
- Fruit that is a caryopsis.
- The blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which helps discourage grazing animals. In some grasses (such as sword grass) this makes the grass blades sharp enough to cut human skin.
- Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from growing tips: this gives the grasses a competitive edge under pressure of grazing herbivores, as the growing points are less likely to be damaged.
The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes, and in part in their physiological diversity. The grasses divide into two physiological groups, using the C3 and C4 carbon fixation processes. The C4 grasses have a photosynthetic pathway linked to specialised leaf anatomy that particularly adapts them to hot climates.
More on [ Poaceae ]
Alopecurus
Ampelodesmos
Andropogon
Aristida
Arthraxon
Arundinaria
Arundo
Avena
Axonopus
Bambusa
Brachiaria
Briza
Bromus
Calamagrostis
Coix
Cynodon
Elytrigia
Fargesia
Festuca
Gigantochloa
Holcus
Hordeum
Hygroryza
Leersia
Lolium
Lygeum
Melinis
Microstegium
Oplismenus
Oryza
Panicum
Pascopyrum
Pennisetum
Phyllostachys
Saccharum
Secale
Sorghum
Stenotaphrum
Triticum
Zea
Cereals :: Field Crops
Turfgrass :: Horticulture
Medicinal Plants. POACEAE.(Yaa Khaa) http://herbstohealth.blogspot.com/2008/10/poaceaeyaa-khaa.html
healthyseason (Aree M.) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:42:54 -0000
Medicinal Plants. POACEAE.(Yaa Khaa) http://herbstohealth.blogspot.com/2008/10/poaceaeyaa-khaa.html
Medicinal Plants. POACEAE.(Yaa Khaa) http://herbstohealth.blogspot.com/2008/10/poaceaeyaa-khaa.html
letgohealthy (Aree B.) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:00:28 -0000
Medicinal Plants. POACEAE.(Yaa Khaa) http://herbstohealth.blogspot.com/2008/10/poaceaeyaa-khaa.html
Reis (Oryza) ist eine Pflanzengattung aus der Familie der SüÃgräser (Poaceae) mit breiten Blättern und langen http://bit.ly/xcUg
wikirage_de1 (wikirage_de1) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:58:14 -0000
Reis (Oryza) ist eine Pflanzengattung aus der Familie der Süßgräser (Poaceae) mit breiten Blättern und langen http://bit.ly/xcUg
@MegRaeB They're all in the Poaceae family with lawn grass and such! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae
geneticmaize (Anastasia Bodnar) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:26:55 -0000
@MegRaeB They're all in the Poaceae family with lawn grass and such! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae
Epidermal micromorphology of the genus Festuca L. (Poaceae) in the Iberian Peninsula http://kele.es/oez
Bio_Network (George Maine) Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:01:07 -0000
Epidermal micromorphology of the genus Festuca L. (Poaceae) in the Iberian Peninsula http://kele.es/oez
Rice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family (Poaceae). As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple ...
kove (Nicholas Kove) Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:30:15 -0000
Rice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family (Poaceae). As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple ...
American Bamboo Society - Descriptions of every species of bamboo sold in the United States, general information about bamboo, and links to bamboo societies around the world.
Catalogue of New World Grasses (Poaceae) - Project to database and link all nomenclature, types, synonymy, current taxonomy, and distribution for grasses occurring from Alaska and Greenland to Tierra del Fuego.
Gramineae in the Families of Flowering Plants - Contains list of genera (without links) and some unique illustrations.
Meta Description: [ Description of Gramineae Juss., generated from
a DELTA database. ]
Grass Genera of the World - Descriptions and illustrations of over 800 grass genera by L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz. Includes synonyms, morphology, anatomy, physiology, phytochemistry, cytology, classification, pathogens, and distribution. Based on the DELTA system adopted by the International Taxonomic Databases Working Group.
500
Grass Hybrids Database - A cooperative project dedicated to collecting data from interspecies crosses between Gramineae (=Poaceae) and disseminating these data immediately via the searchable hybrids list database on this website.
Know Your Grasses - Descriptions and ink drawings of over 70 range grasses of Texas. The TEXNAT site is an information database on natural resource management of Texas rangelands. Texas AM Research and Extension Center in San Angelo.
Meta Description: [ Know your grasses range management vegetation ares of texas. ]
Manual of Grasses for North America - Information about and from a project creating a taxonomic account of all grasses that have been found growing without cultivation in the continental United States and Canada plus, many cultivated species grown in the region.
Poaceae in Flowering Plant Families - University of Hawaii - Photos and short descriptions of about 20 grasses important in Hawaii.
Pooideae (Poaceae) in Australia - Database under development representing 59 genera and 303 taxa in the subfamily Pooideae (formerly, Festucoideae). Descriptions and illustrations. By C.M. Weiller, M.J. Henwood, J. Lenz and L. Watson. Uses the DELTA System.
Stipeae - Limited taxonomic information about this tribe of grasses, which includes Achnatherum, Aciachne, Anemanthele, Austrostipa, Jarava, Macrochloa, Nassella, Nicoraella, Oryzopsis, Piptochaetium, Ptilagrostis, Stipa, and Trikeraia.
Texas Grasses - Taxonomy, key and descriptions of genera, checklist, anatomy, and glossary.
Virtual Flora: Poaceae (Grasses) - Photo gallery and descriptions (in Swedish) of Scandinavian grasses. Database (Sök i Riksmuseets samlingar) can be searched by those unfamiliar with Swedish. Grasses are given common names in English, German, and up to four Scandinavian lanuguages, the images can be useful in any language, and the Home Page (Innehållsförteckning) provides accessibility to plant lists using internationally recognizable visual symbols.
World Grasses Database - Kew Royal Botanic Gardens - Downloadable (20 MB) morphological descriptions of some 9000 species coded in DELTA (DEscription Language for TAxonomy) format using approximately 1000 characters. Uses INTKEY software available elsewhere, a program for interactive identification and information retrieval, to generate printed descriptions of species and genera, list the occurrence of particular characters or character combinations, assist in key construction, and make identifications.
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