Grasses

Wind-blown grass in the Valles Caldera in New Mexico, United States

Grasses are a group of plant species that include grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture. They are one of the great Pillars of Domestication. Grasslands such as savanna 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.

"Grass" is a colloquial name for members of the Poaceae plant family. They include some domesticated cereal crops such as maize (corn), wheat, millet, and rice are eaten around the world. The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family in modern times. They are used for forage, building materials (bamboo, thatch) and fuel (ethanol), as well as food.

Rushes and sedges fall outside this family, but are commonly referred to as grasses.

A silly little rhyme to remember the difference between grasses, rushes and sedges when trying to identify them:

Sedges have edges

Rushes are round

Grasses have knees

that bend to the ground.

Uses

Many species of grass have been cultivated and are a staple food for all of humanity. Without the cultivation of grasses and other plant families, we wouldn't survive as a species.

Grass can also be used as an improvised fishing line.

Some Notable Members

• Maize (corn)
• Wheat
• Millet
• Rice
• Barley
• Oat
• Bamboo
• Rye
• Farro
• Emmer
• Spelt

See also

• Cotton
• Hemp
• Pine
• Rubber
• Stick
• Wood
• Raw material

External links

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Poaceae, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).